Intel® Technology Access Software

Intel Confidential

Revision

Acronyms

1. Introduction

Intel® Technology Access (Intel® TA) is a framework that exposes platform technologies to applications using web services. The Intel TA provides applications direct access (as supported) to any platform technology,  on any device, and across devices using a web service API (implemented using REST API).

By providing a uniform solution to access platform technologies, Intel TA allows developers/OEMS to improve efficiency and deliver a consistent experience to end users irrespective of the underlying computing environments (OS, browser, or runtime).

By using Intel TA, applications can access the platform technologies/capabilities through three multiple channels.

• Filter Driver channel: A software driver component that connects the applications to the platform technologies
• ME channel: A firmware component that connects the applications to the platform technologies
• Cloud channel: A collection of cloud based services that connects the applications to the platform technologies

This guide describes how to install and configure Intel TA software on Microsoft Windows* 8.1 for the filter driver channel and ME channel.

Note: Please refer to the Intel TA SDK for developing applications using Intel TA.

2. System Requirements

The Intel TA software has the following requirements:

• Any Intel® Atom™ processor or 4th gen Intel® Core™ processor- based 2 in 1 system
• OS:
  • Microsoft Windows* 7 (x86, x64)
  • Microsoft Windows* 8 (x86, x64)
  • Microsoft Windows* 8.1 (x86, x64)
• Note: Uninstall any previously installed versions of Intel TA software before installing the new version included in this kit. Follow the instructions below on setting up your system with a clean install.
  1. Uninstall the existing Intel TA software from Control Panel -> Programs and Features.
  2. Manually delete the Intel TA certificate. Please refer to Appendix B for detailed instructions on deleting the Intel® TA certificate.
  3. Verify the filter driver is uninstalled. Do this by verifying the Intel TA driver isn’t available on the active Internet connection’s Network Properties.
  4. Verify Intel TA service is not running by accessing Control Panel -> System and Security -> Administrative Tools -> Services.

Note: For detailed requirements specific to Intel TA installation and configuration with ME channel, please refer to section 6.1.

3. Release Kit

∞ Refer to the Intel TA release notes for the VIP Kit number.

4. Installing Intel Technology Access Software

This section describes how to install and verify the proper installation of the Intel TA software with filter driver.

Note: If you are an OEM installing the Intel TA software with ME channel, please refer to Appendix A in this document and complete all ME configuration steps listed in the instructions prior to running the Intel TA installer.

1. Download the Intel TA kit.
2. Run Intel_Technology_Access_Software_1.1.0.1008.exe
3. The Intel® Technology Access Welcome screen will be displayed.  Click Next.

4. If you agree with the terms, accept the license conditions. On the next screen select the destination folder or choose the default as shown below and click Next.

5. The installer will list the software components that will be installed. In addition to the Intel TA software, the installer will install the Intel TA Filter Driver, Intel® Update Manager (if needed) and Microsoft Visual C++* Redistributable as shown below. To proceed click Next.

6. As part of the installation, a system restore point is created. When the installation is complete, the following dialog displays:

5. Verifying the Installation of Intel Technology Access Software Components

5.1 To verify that Intel TA is installed on your system, press the Windows and the X key simultaneously to launch the Control Panel. Navigate to Programs -> Uninstall a program. The Intel® Technology Access software will be listed as illustrated below:

5.2 To verify that the Intel TA service is running, access Windows Services by navigating to Control Panel -> System and Security -> Administrative Tools -> Services. A service labeled Intel® Technology Access Service should be running, as illustrated below:

5.3 To verify that the Intel® Technology Access (Intel® TA) filter driver is present and detected, navigate to Control Panel -> Network and Internet -> Network and Sharing Center -> Change adapter settings.  Choose and right-click on one of the network connections (either Wi-Fi* or LAN) and select Properties.  In the Properties window, you should see Intel Technology Access Driver as shown below:

6. Appendix A (for OEMs only)

This section describes how to install, configure Intel® Technology Access (Intel® TA) software with ME channel. This involves enabling Intel® Network Frame Forwarder (Intel® NFF) for Intel® ME firmware version 10.0.30.1036, installing Intel ME components which are required for Intel TA software with ME channel.

6.1 Prerequisites

1. The platform is based on Broadwell
2. The platform is equipped with one or more SPI flash devices with a total capacity sufficient for storing all relevant firmware images.
3. Intel TA requires that USB-r be enabled in BIOS. This is automatically supported when BIOS has XHCI enabled.
4. The Intel ME firmware kit 10.0.30.1036 can be downloaded from Intel's Validation Internet Portal (VIP) at https://platformsw.intel.com.

6.2 Enabling Intel® Network Frame Forwarder (Intel® NFF)

By default the Intel NFF is not enabled in the firmware image. It can be enabled by using the Intel® Flash Image Tool (Intel® FITC). Intel FIT will be used to generate a SPI flash binary image with Descriptor, GbE, BIOS, and Intel ME regions. Please note that Intel FIT may be updated throughout the release cycles. As a general rule, you should use the tools, images, and other content from the same kit and not mix different versions of these tools.

1. Download the Intel ME firmware release 10.0.30.1036 for Broadwell from VIP.
2. Navigate to [root]\Tools\System Tools\Flash Image Tool.
3. Make sure the Intel FIT XML file contains the hidden flags used for enabling Intel NFF.
   • Open “newfiletmpl.xml” using a text editor.
   • In the above file search for the “FeaturesSupported” section.
   • Verify that it contains the following two lines (if not add them).
     • <NffPerm value="No" value_list="No,,Yes" edit="true" visible="true" name="Network Frame Forwarder Permanently Disabled?" help_text="Select whether Intel (R) Network Frame Forwarder is permanently disabled."/>
     • <NffShipState value="Enabled" value_list="Enabled,,Disabled" edit="true" visible="true" name="Network Frame Forwarder Enable/Disable" help_text="Select whether or not Intel(R) Network Frame Forwarder is enabled or disabled."/>
4. Invoke Intel FIT by double-clicking “fitc.exe”.
5. Open the binary file. Note: change the file filter from “XML Files (*.xml)” to “Binary Files (*.bin)”.
6. Navigate to Flash Image -> ME Region -> Configuration -> Features Supported as illustrated below:
   
7. Enable the feature by changing “Intel® Network Frame Forwarder Enable/Disable” from “Disabled” to “Enabled”. This is illustrated in the next figure:
   

    

8. Next, build the modified firmware image. In the main menu select “Build | Build Image” and confirm any pop-up messages. Note that the modified firmware image will be created in the same directory as the Intel FIT executable (fitc.exe) is located.  This can be changed by modifying the settings in “Build | Environment Variables”.

Important Note: If XHCI is disabled in the BIOS (which means EHCI is enabled), then the BIOS needs to have USB-R bits enabled per the OEM-specific BIOS.

6.3 Installing Intel® Management Engine (ME) Components

1. Download the Intel® ME Firmware release 10.0.30.1036 for Broadwell from VIP
2. Navigate to the folder [root]\Installers\ME_SW_MSI\PreProduction. This folder consists of three files:
   • IntelMEFWVer.dll
   • MEISetup.exe
   • MUP.xml
3. Double-click the installer (MEISetup.exe) to install the software components
4. If you agree with the terms, accept the license conditions. Then follow the instructions in the wizard and the installation will complete.
5. To verify that the Intel ME components are installed on your system, launch Control Panel. Navigate to Control Panel -> Programs -> Uninstall. The Intel® ME components will be listed.

6.4 Installing Intel® Technology Access (Intel® TA) Software for ME Channel

By default, Intel TA installer installs the filter driver and the filter driver channel gets the priority among all three channels. In order to force Intel TA use the ME Channel, you must opt out of the filter driver install. This can be done by running the installer as follows:

1. From the downloaded Intel® Technology Access kit, run Intel_Technology_Access_Software_1.1.0.1008 /nofilter from the Windows* command prompt as shown below. (To access the Windows* command prompt, press the Windows and the X key simultaneously and select Command Prompt.)

2. The Intel TA install wizard will start and if you agree with the terms, accept the license conditions, follow the installation wizard, and complete the installation process. Please refer to section 4 of this document for detailed instructions on how to install the Intel TA software.

6.5 Verifying the Installation of Intel TA Software Components

1. To verify that Intel Access Technology is installed on your computer, please refer to the detailed steps listed in section 5.1
2. To verify whether the Intel Technology Access service is running or not, please refer to the detailed steps listed in section 5.2
3. To verify the Intel® Management Engine RNDIS Ethernet Adapter (Intel® ME RNDIS Ethernet Adapter), navigate to Control Panel -> Network and Internet -> Network and Sharing Center -> Change adapter settings. A new network adapter called the “Intel® ME RNDIS Ethernet Adapter” will display as illustrated below:

7. Appendix B

This section describes the required steps to delete the Intel TA SSL certificate.

1. In the Windows Run box (Windows + R), type mmc. A console opens up.

2. Go to File and select Add/Remove Snap-in

3. From the Add or Remove Snap-ins dialog, select Certificates by double-clicking the name.

4. In the Certificates Snap-in dialog box, select ‘Computer account’, and then click Next.

5. In the Select Computer dialogue box, select Local Computer and click Finish.

6. The Add or Remove Snap-ins window will display all the available certificates on the local computer. Select Certificates and click OK to add these certificates.

7. The Certificates are added under the Console Root on the left pane.

8. Expand the Certificates then Trusted Root Certification Authorities, then Certificates. The list of all the certificates will display.

9. Select Intel® Technology Access certificate from the list, right click and delete the certificate.

Once all the above steps are completed, the Intel TA certificate will be successfully deleted from the system.

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