Computing device with a separate processor provided with management functionality through a separate interface with the interface bus

A computing device comprising:

• a computer processor;
• a system management processor;
• a network interface communicably coupling the computer and system management processors to a network;
• an interface bus communicably coupling the computer processor to the system management processor and to one or more hardware components of the computing device;
• a CPU interface communicably coupling the system management processor to the interface bus, wherein the CPU interface is configured to provide the system management processor with communication functionality to the computer processor;
• a system management interface communicably coupling the system management processor to the interface bus separately from the CPU interface, wherein the system management interface is configured to provide the system management processor with management functionality over the one or more hardware components of the computing device, and the system management processor is configured to control the one or more hardware components using the management functionality, said control being independent of an operating system running on the computer processor;
• and
• storage means communicably coupled to the system management processor, wherein the system management processor regulates access of the computer processor to the storage means.