When a so-called green personal computer puts itself to sleep, network administrators have had to wander over to the machine and wake it up before they can do file back-up or update any of the software or access privileges on the machine – but not any more. A new concept called Magic Packet enables the machine to be jerked awake again from the administrator’s console, and Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Hewlett-Packard Co are offering the first implementation. Advanced Micro has implemented Magic Packet on its PCnet-ISA II single-chip Ethernet controller without adding to the cost, and will add it as a standard feature on all of PCnet single-chip Ethernet devices in the future. Hewlett-Packard is to support Magic Packet in an upcoming HP OpenView network and system management application and will incorporate it as a standard feature in its network-ready personal computer product line and network management offerings later this year.The Magic Packet is a protocol-independent Ethernet frame that is sent to a single network node: it is recognised by the Ethernet controller and automatically wakes up the entire computer.
