Concise monthly summary for 2026-01 focusing on delivering business value and key technical milestones. 1) Key features delivered: - PLDM Message Handling Stabilization for Power Cycles in facebook/OpenBIC: Increased robustness of PLDM communications during power cycles by extending the PLDM message timeout from 5 seconds to 20 seconds and reducing the maximum retry count from 20 to 5, addressing reliability in power-cycle scenarios. - Implementation tied to commit: ffa85e3c47291e6812593637f40d8306dc178a02 (yv4-sd: modify the pldm msg timeout and retry) supporting YV4T1M-2218 and YV4T1M-2220. 2) Major bugs fixed: - Reduced excessive PLDM retries during power cycles to prevent backlog and repeated SEL entries in BMC logs, improving system stability under power on/off sequences. 3) Overall impact and accomplishments: - Significantly improved reliability and predictability of BIC-to-BMC PLDM interactions during power transitions, contributing to lower post-power cycle failure rates and smoother system resets. - Strengthened platform stability for YV4 configurations and enhanced sleep/wake cycle handling in critical server workflows. 4) Technologies/skills demonstrated: - PLDM protocol tuning and reliability engineering (timeout and retry policy changes) - Low-level firmware/software integration and change traceability (commit, PR #2651, D90553560, test plan) - End-to-end validation and cross-team collaboration (QE validation with Sled/DC/DC reset/AC cycle) - Build, test, and release discipline with traceable test plans and differential revisions.

December 2025 monthly summary for facebook/OpenBIC: - Focused on stabilizing PLDM/firmware interactions to maintain compatibility across firmware releases. The primary action was a rollback of PLDM-related changes that introduced compatibility issues, including the removal of the PLDM timestamp in OEM PLDM event data, adjustments to event length, and removal of the PLDM response check function. - This work restored firmware compatibility, reduced risk for OEM deployments, and improved overall system stability when updating firmware. - Documentation and traceability were enhanced with explicit PR references to enable faster future rollbacks and maintainability. Technologies/skills demonstrated include PLDM protocol handling, firmware interface management, C/C++ code changes, git-based rollback workflows, and thorough code review practices.

November 2025: Reliability improvements for PLDM communication and SEL event logging in facebook/OpenBIC. Implemented timestamp-based deduplication for SEL entries and strengthened PLDM response handling with a new read-check function and retry-oriented queue adjustments. These changes reduce duplicate SEL logging, improve retry reliability, and stabilize PLDM interactions with the BMC. End-to-end validation included building/testing on the YV4 platform and QE-driven stress tests across BIOS updates, DC cycles, and ACPI resets, along with large-scale PLDM retry stress to ensure robustness.

September 2025 (facebook/OpenBIC): Implemented PLDM timeout and retry customization for the firmware update workflow, enabling per-platform timeouts and per-event configurations for BIC firmware updates. Changes span common and yv4-sd components and were delivered via commits that adjust PLDM message timeout and retry semantics to improve upgrade reliability and messaging efficiency. This work lays groundwork for platform-specific upgrade optimizations and reduces upgrade failure risks.

August 2025: Delivered asynchronous IPMI command processing via a PLDM work queue in facebook/OpenBIC, enabling non-blocking handling of IPMI data and improved remote management reliability. The work decouples KCS reading from PLDM event transmission, preventing stalls when PLDM is busy and enabling timely processing of IPMI commands like ADD_SEL, CRASH_DUMP, and OEM_POST_START_END, as well as recording BIOS firmware versions. This enhances system availability, reduces command latency under PLDM load, and establishes a scalable path for future IPMI throughput increases.