Tuesday, August 8, 2017

RTC SECTION AND ITS WORKING

RTC:
It keeps track on storing the time, date and user’s system settings , Even when there
is no external power on the board (means the G3 machincal off state) unless the on
board 3.3v coin cell not removed.
Working and esensital signals of RTC.


1. VCCRTC . VccRTC powers PCH RTC well which is mostly connected to the
LDO output 3.3v of 3/5v regulator .which is genraterd before pressing the power
button . and a 3.3v internal battery is used for VCCRTC too. (such as coin cell).

2. RESET# and SRTCRST#. These signals are used to clear the system
settings or in simple words we can say, to clear cmos settings . these signals are
active when low and can b asserted by removing the RTC coin battery or by shorting
the cmos clear jumperth. These signals are also feaded from the same sourceof
VCCRTC but through resister dividers to make these signals high and to store
system settings.

3. RTCX1 and RTCX2. Basicaly ICH/PCH uses a internal timer IC having 256
byte of RAM which keeps track on date, time and system settings. Ich/pch uses a
cristal circuit to genrate a low swing sine wave of 32.768Khz at RTCX1 pin as
input to the internal oscillator, and this input signal is amplified and driven back to the
cristal circuit through RTCX2 pin of ICH/PCH with the same frequancy of 32.768 Khz
but with littel higher amplitude due to amplification . thats why when we check the
cristal pins with multimeater we found little diffrence in voltage at both pins. And it is
the first check point whther the oscillator circuit of ICH/PCH is initallised or not .

4. Sus_clock. The RTCX1 input is amplified for the purpose to drive internal
logic of ICH/PCH
And genrates a free running full swing square wave of same frequancy of 32.768
Khz as
Clock out put for system use . this out put of ICH/PCH is known as SUS_CLOCK.
SUS_CLOCK is the shure short way to check wether the RTC section is working
properly or not by checking the wave form.
Thats why we requires the DSO/CRO to check signals at motherboard as RTCX1,
RTCX2 and SUS_CLOCK have the same frequancy of 32.768 Khz if we check with
frequany meater but the diffrence is the wave form (shape of the wave).

5. INTRUDER#. This signals is used through a switch to find out the cover of the
system is open or closed . we have seen in some branded systems , COVER OPEN
SYSTEM HALT message, which is genrated by this low signal . this signal is also a
part of the RTC well. This signal is also kept high through VCCRTC.

6. INTVRMEN. ICH/PCH have some internal voltage regulators and to enable
these internal lenear regulaters an enable signal is also provided by this RTCVCC
as INTVRMEN ( internal regulater enable)
These all signals are the part of RTC WELL and must be present to turn on the
board. In the absence of any of these may cause not powering up the board .
Rtc cristal x1 pin .
Pure sine wave of 32khz.
Out put of rtc section to the cristal pin x2 .
Same frequency of 32 khz but diffrence is amplitude . Little high amplitude due to
amplification .
Sus_clk output of rtc section . After pressing pwr btn . Full swing squre wave of same
32khz .



RTC

ME Analyzer 1.10

Intel Engine Firmware Analysis Tool

    ME Analyzer is a tool that can show various details about Intel Engine Firmware (Management Engine, Trusted Execution Engine, Service Platform Services) images. It can be used to identify whether the firmware is updated, what Release, Type, SKU it is etc.



ME Analyzer Features

Supports all current & legacy Engine firmware (ME 1.x – 11.x , TXE 1.x – 2.x & SPS 1.x – 4.x)
All types of firmware files are supported (ME/TXE/SPS Regions, BIOS images etc)
Partial Firmware Update support for Corporate ME 8-11 enabled platforms
SoniX/LS_29’s UEFI Bios Updater and Lordkag’s UEFI Strip integration support
Firmware Family (ME, TXE or SPS), Date & Version number detection
Production, Pre-Production & ROM-Bypass firmware release detection
Region (Stock or Extracted) & Update firmware type detection
Identification of the platform that the firmware was configured for via FITC
SKU & target platform detection for all supported firmware releases
Security Version Number (SVN), Version Control Number (VCN) & PV-bit detection
Intel SPI Flash Descriptor Access Region detection, Skylake compatible
Identification of whether the imported Engine firmware is up-to-date
Proper CPT/PBG SKU & BlackList Table detection for ME 7.x firmware
Special Apple Macintosh mobile ME firmware SKU support
FWUpdate OEMID detection at Region & SPI/BIOS images
Multiple drag & drop & sorting of rare/problematic Engine Firmware
Multiple Engine Firmware Region detection, number only
Unidentifiable Engine Firmware Region (ex: Corrupted, Compressed) detection
Reports unknown firmware not found at the Engine Repository Database
Reports unknown firmware Major, Minor, SKU, Type etc releases
Shows colored text to signify the importance of notes, warnings, errors etc
Open Source project licensed under GNU GPL v3


Engine Firmware Repository Database

    ME Analyzer’s main goal is to allow users to quickly determine & report new firmware versions without the use of special Intel tools (FIT/FITC, FWUpdate) or Hex Editors. To do that effectively, a database had to be built. The Intel Engine Firmware Repositories is a collection of every ME, TXE & SPS firmware. It’s existence is very important for ME Analyzer as it allows us to find new types of firmware, compare same major version releases for similarities, check for updated firmware etc. Bundled with ME Analyzer there’s a file called MEA.dat which is required for the program to run. It includes all Engine firmware that are available at the Repository thread. This accommodates two actions: a) Check whether the imported firmware is up to date and b) Help find new Engine firmware releases sooner by reporting them at the Intel Management Engine: Drivers, Firmware & System Tools or Intel Trusted Execution Engine: Drivers, Firmware & System Tools threads respectively.



How to use ME Analyzer

    There are two ways to use ME Analyzer, MEA.exe & Command Prompt. The MEA executable allows you to drag & drop one or more firmware and view them one by one. To manually call ME Analyzer, a Command Prompt can be used with -skip as parameter.



ME Analyzer Executable

     To use ME Analyzer, select one or multiple files and Drag & Drop them to it’s executable. You can also input certain optional parameters either by running MEA directly or by first dropping one or more files to it. Keep in mind that, due to operating system limitations, there is a limit on how many files can be dropped at once.



 ME Analyzer Parameters

There are various parameters which enhance or modify the default behavior of ME Analyzer.

-? : Displays MEA’s help & usage screen
-skip : Skips MEA’s options intro screen
-multi : Scans multiple files and renames on messages
-mass : Scans all files of a given directory
-ubu : SoniX/LS_29’s UEFI BIOS Updater mode
-ubupre : SoniX/LS_29’s UEFI BIOS Updater Pre-Menu mode
-extr : Lordkag’s UEFI Strip mode
-adir : Sets UEFIFind to the previous directory
-msg : Prints only messages without headers
-hid : Displays all firmware even without messages (-msg)
-aecho : Alternative display of empty lines (-msg, -hid)
-disuf : Disables UEFIFind Engine GUID detection
-dbname : Renames input file based on DB name
-rbume : Extracts Dell HDR RBU ImagME regions
-pdb : Prints the DB without SHA1 hashes to file
-prsa : Prints the firmware’s SHA-1 hash for DB entry
-dker : Prints Kernel/FIT analysis for post-SKL firmware
-eker : Extracts post-SKL FTPR > Kernel region (research)
-exc : Pauses after unexpected python exceptions (debugging)
-utf8 : Encodes output to Unicode (only in case of crash)


ME Analyzer Error Control

     During operation, ME Analyzer may encounter some issues related to rare firmware circumstances that can trigger Notes, Warnings or Errors. Notes (yellow color) provide useful information about a characteristic of this particular firmware. Warnings (purple color) notify the user of possible problems that can cause system instability. Errors (red color) are shown when something unexpected is encountered like unknown Major/Minor/SKU releases, Failure to find/open/read files etc.



Download ME Analyzer

ME Analyzer is developed and tested under Windows and currently Windows XP – Windows 10 operating systems are supported. Linux and macOS support is planned for the future.


Download Here Click