The OPMA specification, which can be freely downloaded from the web, specifies a signal list, connector and pin out, power requirements, mechanical form factor, BIOS and management controller firmware interfaces, and a detailed division of management subsystem resources between the motherboard and the mCard.
The OPMA interface is flexible enough to handle multiple mCard price points and capabilities ranging from basic IPMI based management to those that support KVMoIP, remote virtual media, and newer external interface standards that require a larger on-card resource footprint such as WS-Management.
OPMA also leverages the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) specification in order to provide a basic plug and play capability.
This is especially true of those using the 1U rack format and those which need PCI slots for RAID interface cards that enhance system hard disk throughput.
AMD reasoned that external audiences would derive these same benefits as its internal engineering teams and so OPMA was documented and released.
According to AMD's press releases, there has been significant interest in OPMA by the server industry platform and infrastructure providers.