Ryzen Shines With Remote Management On Qualcomm Wi-Fi Kit

AMD and Qualcomm have rolled out a joint effort that brings remote management capabilities over Wi-Fi for AMD business systems, potentially boosting their appeal for corporate IT departments.

The two companies said they were working together to improve Qualcomm's FastConnect wireless kit for AMD compute platforms based on the Ryzen chips for desktops and laptops. The starting point for this is AMD Ryzen-powered business laptops using Qualcomm's FastConnect 6900 system that delivers Wi-Fi 6 and 6E plus Bluetooth 5.3, supporting Wi-Fi connection speeds up to 3.6Gbps.

Remote management is enabled by the combination of the AMD Manageability Processor now embedded in Ryzen PRO 6000 systems and the FastConnect 6900 system, AMD and Qualcomm said, with support for the DASH client management standard developed by the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF).

According to AMD, this includes out-of-band remote management over Wi-Fi, a capability that should prove a vital tool for enterprise IT staff to diagnose and fix issues, even when the operating system on the target computer will not boot.

Such out-of-band management capabilities have long been a feature of Intel business systems based on its vPro platform, at first through a wired Ethernet connection and more recently via a Wi-Fi connection.

"By optimizing FastConnect 6900 for platforms powered by AMD Ryzen 6000 Series processors, we're bringing secure Wi-Fi remote management to AMD enterprise customers," said Qualcomm VP for Mobile Compute and Connectivity Dino Bekis.

Bekis said this is the first step in the partnership between the two firms, with the aim of bringing "superior wireless connectivity" to the AMD mobile computing roadmap.

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AMD Ryzen processors support Microsoft Endpoint Manager, the software giant's unified endpoint management platform that includes Microsoft Intune and Configuration Manager for provisioning and management of endpoint systems across an organization.

The combination of AMD Ryzen and Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 seems to have the endorsement of HP and Lenovo, featuring in the HP EliteBook 805 Series and Lenovo ThinkPad Z Series.

Windows 11 allows these systems to operate using Wi-Fi Dual Station mode, which supports the use of multiple simultaneous Wi-Fi bands when linked with a compatible access point, which can deliver improved performance for applications such as video conferencing, according to Qualcomm. ®