Expanding The Horizon Of System Monitoring With The Arm SMCF

In an era where system complexity is scaling rapidly, real-time monitoring and predictive analytics play a pivotal role in maintaining lifetime performance and reliability. At proteanTecs, we are committed to enabling advanced diagnostics, predictive maintenance, and on-chip actionable visibility for today’s mission-critical systems, across high-performance industries.

Our in-chip monitoring technology is connected and supported by a backbone of proteanTecs’ native framework. However, our solution is an open architecture and can work under partner monitoring frameworks. Among our supported frameworks is the Arm System Monitoring Control Framework (SMCF), which enhances monitoring for Arm Neoverse Compute Subsystem (CSS) solutions.

SMCF empowers designers and operators by providing a standardized approach to gathering critical data on system health, enabling them to fine-tune performance, prevent failures, and adapt to evolving operational demands. This shift highlights the growing need for system monitoring in the market, prompting Arm to develop a dedicated framework to address these needs.

By integrating with SMCF, proteanTecs strengthens its offering of predictive deep data solutions that span the entire deployment of Neoverse CSS-based custom SoCs.

Understanding SMCF: A framework for control and monitoring

The Arm SMCF introduces a modular, programmable solution designed to address the growing need for visibility and control in high-performance environments. Its design integrates telemetry, diagnostics, and dynamic control mechanisms into a cohesive framework that enhances system reliability, power/performance, and efficiency.

The SMCF provides a standard software programming interface and comes with a set of functions to simplify setup. It enables 3rd party data to be quickly integrated into a control system and allows developers to group monitors in functional blocks to create a manageable hierarchy.

Enhancing SMCF

At proteanTecs, our mission is to push the boundaries of advanced electronics. As a member of Arm Total Design, integration with the SMCF provides an easy path for CSS customers to leverage our monitoring system with minimal effort. By supporting SMCF, we integrate our deep-data monitoring capabilities with its features, delivering a robust solution for SoC developers and system operators.

proteanTecs offers lifecycle solutions for:

1. Power & Performance
2. Reliability, Availability, Serviceability (RAS)
3. Functional Safety & Diagnostics
4. Product Bring-Up
5. Quality & Operations
6. Die-to-Die Interconnect

By integrating with the SMCF architecture, our on-chip Agents are seamlessly connected to Arm CSS designs, through the solution’s two main components:

1. The SMCF Monitor Group Interface (MGI): a configurable software interface component.
2. The SMCF Monitor Local Interface (MLI): an adaptation layer for specific external monitors.

proteanTecs integration with SMCF.

Once integrated, proteanTecs offers dedicated software and firmware applications, targeting needs across the product lifecycle – based on the Agent data. These include:

• Cloud and on-tester applications during chip and system production – for power reduction, advanced characterization & qualification, latent defect detection, yield monitoring, and more.
• Cloud, on-board, and in-chip lifetime monitoring applications – for increased reliability, data integrity, power/performance, mission-profiling, predictive maintenance, and more.

proteanTecs’ deep data capabilities complement SMCF’s inherent strengths, creating a seamless solution for system monitoring. Together, we enable faster time-to-diagnosis and deeper system insights, ensuring peak performance even in the most demanding conditions.

Looking ahead: Building a resilient future

With its focus on enabling workload-optimized CPUs with high efficiency and performance at scale, Arm Neoverse CSS is at the forefront of next-generation infrastructure. The SMCF is a significant architecture, enabling consistent and flexible tracking of systems across custom designs.

As a leader in this space, and with numerous joint customers, proteanTecs aims to further empower the semiconductor industry with actionable monitoring that reduces downtime, mitigates risks, and ensures continuous optimization of SoC functionality over time. While SMCF serves as a critical framework within the ecosystem, proteanTecs maintains its solutions as architecture-agnostic, ensuring broad applicability across industries and platforms.

Supporting the Arm SMCF aligns with our mission to empower universal system power, performance, reliability monitoring with scalable, platform-agnostic applications. To learn more about proteanTecs solutions, visit the Resources section on our website.