American Megatrends Announces Launch of AMI Provisioning™ Pre-Boot Management Utility at IDF 2010 San Francisco

INTEL DEVELOPER FORUM, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – American Megatrends (AMI), a leader in storage and computing innovations, is pleased to introduce its new robust pre-boot management utility, AMI Provisioning™. AMI Provisioning integrates firmware configuration, firmware update, hardware diagnostics and pre-OS applications in a Unified EFI (UEFI) environment.

AMI Provisioning has a number of noteworthy attributes that leverage its compatibility with the UEFI specification. At its core, AMI Provisioning allows developers to embed utilities together with the system, effectively replacing the standard recovery DVD shipped with most devices with an “always available" pre-boot management tool. AMI Provisioning can be executed from the BIOS flash ROM, NAND flash, on-board USB devices, protected hard disk partitions and OEM proprietary storage.

AMI Provisioning also simplifies pre-OS configuration by taking advantage of UEFI standards. It features a user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI) that allows for a move away from text-based “legacy BIOS” setup menus typically associated with the pre-boot environment. The GUI is easily customized for OEM branding, and includes support for multiple languages along with context-sensitive help.

One of the key benefits of AMI Provisioning is its ability to provide OS-independent firmware updates for all firmware components of the system. The advantage of executing BIOS and firmware updates in pre-boot is the elimination of OS compatibility issues, allowing customers to recover in situations where the OS cannot boot. Its network support allows for updates over the network via FTP and HTTP, in addition to network shares or locally-stored files. AMI Provisioning also guarantees the security and integrity of firmware updates with its support for digital signatures, to verify the authenticity of firmware images and avoid using tampered or outdated updates.

When combined with AMI’s Aptio® UEFI firmware and AMIDiag™ for UEFI, AMI Provisioning greatly simplifies system maintenance and configuration. AMIDiag™ for UEFI integrates neatly into the AMI Provisioning utility and makes system diagnostics readily available to the user, enabling full system tests even when the OS is not functional.

Because AMI Provisioning is built on the latest version of the industry-backed UEFI specification, users experience a management interface consistent with AMI’s Aptio® firmware solution and other UEFI implementations and platforms. Finally, AMI Provisioning is easily extensible, empowering developers to extend the framework and create and integrate new applications that leverage the same GUI and customized OEM themes.

Speaking about this new product, American Megatrends President and CEO S. Shankar commented that “the power and extensibility of AMI Provisioning is possible thanks to AMI’s commitment to UEFI standards. AMI Provisioning allows AMI to provide the full spectrum of UEFI and pre-boot support to system developers, with diagnostics, updates, system recovery, and pre-boot applications. AMI strongly believes that AMI Provisioning will be of great benefit to manufacturers, in part by helping them avoid needless system returns due to trivial issues that can be corrected in the pre-boot environment.”

AMI will demonstrate AMI Provisioning as part of a joint demonstration with Intel and Dell during IDF San Francisco in Track Presentation Session EFIS004 entitled “Zero-Touch Platform Manageability with UEFI” in Room 2006 of the Moscone Center West on Monday, September 13 at 3:20pm. To learn more about the new AMI Provisioning robust pre-boot management utility from AMI, Aptio® UEFI firmware, AMIDiag™ for UEFI and more, please visit www.ami.com or contact an AMI Sales Associate at 1-800-U-BUY-AMI.

About AMI:
Founded in 1985 and known worldwide for AMIBIOS®, American Megatrends Inc. (AMI) supplies state-of-the-art hardware, software, and utilities to today's high-tech manufacturers. AMI’s innovative Aptio® solution for UEFI, modular AMIBIOS8, high quality StorTrends® IP Storage Area Networks (IP-SAN), Network Attached Storage (NAS), and Storage Management software solutions, along with MegaRAC® remote server management, KVM over IP, IPMI 2.0 firmware and high-density motherboards continue to garner industry acclaim and awards around the world. In line with the diversity of its technology and product line, AMI is a member of a number of industry associations and standards groups, such as the Unified EFI Forum (UEFI), the Intel® Embedded Alliance and the Trusted Computing Group (TCG). Headquartered in Atlanta, AMI has locations in the U.S., China, Germany, India, Japan, Korea and Taiwan to better serve its customers.

American Megatrends, Inc.
5555 Oakbrook Parkway, Building 200
Norcross, GA 30093 USA
Main: 770-246-8600
Fax: 770-246-8790
On the web: www.ami.com

Press Contact: Chris Menosky, Marketing Communications Manager
American Megatrends, Inc.
5555 Oakbrook Parkway, Building 200
Norcross, GA 30093 USA
Direct: 770-246-8617
Mobile: 770-329-5216
Email: christopherm@ami.com

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