Intel Smart Connect Technology

Intel® Smart Connect Technology
3.0.30.1526 Production Version
Release Notes

July 26, 2012

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Copyright © 2012 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.

Notice: The Intel^® Smart Connect Technology Software may contain design defects or errors described as "known issues" which may cause the product to deviate from expected performance. Current characterized known issues are documented in this update.

Features

1. A periodic timer to suspend and resume the platform. The time the machine is in S3 is configurable through the GUI. This sleep time is based on battery level and thermal condition as well as how long the platform is in the S0-ISCT mode.

2. Enabling/disabling periodic wake updated through the GUI (sleep duration)

3. When in S0, if there is any HID activity, the service stops suspending the platform. But once the user suspends the platform, it again begins to suspend/resume the platform until the next user input.

4. The ISCT Agent works for both lid closed/open cases unless the user has configured the lid-close result in the Control Panel for “No Action”.

5. If there is no IP connectivity after resume for a configurable interval, the platform is suspended early to save power.

6. If there is no traffic on the connected NICs, the platform is suspended early to save power.

7. PNP Driver to allow communication between BIOS and ISCT Agent. NOTE: this requires the BIOS to enable and support the ISCT ACPI Virtual Device (INT33A0) or the ISCT Agent will not run (cannot be started).

8. A more gradual battery level based back off mechanism to enable longer battery life.

9. Integration with Intel® Rapid Start Technology (if enabled on the platform) to transition to S4 (Rapid Start S4) during Extended Hours Mode.

10. Support for Intel® Centrino Wireless NetDetect. NetDetect is enabled when no network connects (WWAN/LAN/WLAN) are available prior to the platform entering S3 unattended (non-user requested S3 transition) – see “New Features” section below for further explanation.

11. Enhanced supported for platforms where S0-ISCT wake duration is unlimited while network activity remains above 100Kbps for 10 seconds. Mobile platforms required to have lid open (lid status supplied via GPCS ACPI control method) and connect to AC for feature to be enabled. For all platforms BIOS change required for GAOS ACPI method to report back to the iSCT Agent that extended wake duration is supported for the current S0-ISCT session requesting it.

12. System Tray icon that provides periodic notification to the user that Intel Smart Connect Technology is installed on the platform and has not been enabled. System Tray icon provides shortcuts to the configuration GUI and new Wizard configuration utility. Wizard configuration utility allows quick configuration of iSCT settings.

13. Thermal and battery life monitor for S0-ISCT session on mobile platforms. ISCT Agent monitors the thermal and battery life every second during the session and if the thermal (CPU TjMax delta of 47) exceeds the default value or the battery life drops below 17%, the Agent returns the platform to S3 and updates the sleep duration appropriately. Desktop platforms do not have the restriction.

Revision History

Date	Revision	Draft/Changes
April 15, 2012	3.0.1233.0	Beta Release
June 27, 2012	3.0.30.1473	Beta 2 for Win8
July 5, 2012	3.0.30.1486	Beta 3 for Win8
July 17, 2012	3.0.30.1501	PC for Win8, PV 2 for Win7
July 26, 2012	3.0.30.1526	Final PV for both Win8 and Win7

Supported Operating Systems

The Intel Always Updated Software is validated on the following Microsoft operating systems:

Microsoft Windows 7 SP1
Microsoft Windows 8

New Features from Previous Release

ID	Information
N/A	Fixed program name properties of setup.exe

Bugs Fixed from Previous Release

ID	Information
N/A	Removed warning message in debug log if GPCS ACPI Control Method not implemented

Software Sightings and/or Known Issues

ID	Information
4016985	WLAN: Slow Connect and Response Times on 2.4Ghz
4016987	WLAN: NetDetect and Rapid Start coexistence issue

Usage Notes

Information

To prevent un-intentional connections using prepaid or metered connections (e.g., iPass), users need to shut down such applications before putting the machine into sleep(S3) mode if they do not want Intel Smart Connect Technology to use metered connections in unattended mode.

All applications including instant messaging or location-based software can potentially be active in unattended S0 mode. Users should shut down any applications they don’t want running in unattended mode before putting the machine into sleep (S3) mode.

Users should disable Intel Smart Connect Technology periodic wake before boarding planes to prevent systems powering on in unattended mode.

When the sleep duration is set below 10 minutes, the actual sleep duration may not be the requested. This is caused by the 10% duty cycle calculation of S0-ISCT + 20/(S3 + S0-ISCT + 20) cannot be > 10%. The wake period is variable and depends on network connectivity, email traffic, thermal conditions and duty cycle constraints.

When NetDetect is enabled, the first scan in Sx by the NetDetect FW will occur after a period of time equal to the current sleep duration set in the GUI. This is called “initial hold-off time”. Once that time has elapsed, the NetDetect FW will do the first scan for AP’s and if none found, will perform additional scans every 2 minutes.

The current setting of the “Enable Updating” and “Disable Updating” button will not change if the “Reset All to Defaults” button is pressed. This is to maintain the current setting of the periodic wake enablement.

To prevent race conditions with the OS in restoring the audio setting, a small delay of 2 seconds (2000 ms) is used before the Agent restores the audio settings. If the delay period needs to be adjusted, please add a DWORD registry entry “AudioDelayMilliSeconds” and set the requested value in milliseconds (e.g. 3000) appropriately for the audio devices. See the Registry Settings section of the Intel® Smart Connect Technology Platform Design Specification for more information on modifying registry values.

If suspend (go to S3) is initiated by the user, the ISCT Agent will enable periodic wake regardless of network connect status (connected or not connected). If suspend is issued by ISCT Agent, then NetDetect will be enabled (if NetDetect supported Intel® Centrino Wireless Network card present) if no network (WWAN/LAN/WLAN) connection is available. Not enabling Netdetect on the user transition to S3 is due to OS constraints. Sometimes when ISCT agent enables Netdetect in Intel Centrino wireless lan driver, the driver may be scanning due to OS initiated scan and since NDIS serializes the oids, it can take longer than 2 seconds. Windows only allows 2 seconds for applications to exit and validation revealed that a large percentage of the time NetDetect was not enabled upon entering S3, for user initiated/activity timeout suspend operations.

WoWLAN (Wireless Wake On LAN) is enabled in the Intel® Centrino Wireless Network driver for NetDetect support. Note this enabling is to allow the OS to clear the PME WAKE indicator in the PCH. It does not allow magic packet wakes

Circular 1MB log file are now created in the directory: C:\ProgramData\Intel\iSCT. Note this is a hidden directory. By default the same messages that appear in the Windows Event Log are stored in the log file directory. For additional logging, the registry settings of “LoggingLevel=16” and “LoggingEnabled=2” need to be set in the iSCT Registry Key. See the Setup&Configuration Guide for more information on registry settings for iSCT.

When the platform wakes from S3 to S0-ISCT, any application is given a chance to run. Applications like back-up applications may block the iSCT Agent from going back to S3 until they have completed.

To enable co-existence of NetDetect and Rapid Start, the following registry settings are required:

· HKLM\Software\Intel\Intel Smart Connect Technology\OEM\NDFFSCoExist = 1

· HKLM\Software\Intel\Intel Smart Connect Technology\OEM\NetDetectPref = 1

Additionally you will need the Rapid Start v1.5 (or later) BIOS reference code integrated into your BIOS for the co-existence to work

For Desktop SKUs, if network activity falls below 100Kbps for 10 seconds, system schedule the next periodic wake and transition to S3

The System Tray icon will display a balloon reminder the first time the system is booted and Smart Connect Technology is not enabled. Unless the user invokes the GUI or wizard, the balloon reminder will occur every 3^rd boot or login by a user. The user may tell the balloon reminder to never remind them or remind them at a later date (2 weeks).