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The management engine can talk to ethernet cards directly, without using PCIe or the OS, via SMBus, look at the thing labelled "SMLink0" on Figure 5-2 on page 38 of http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/...

Indeed, the ethernet controller's datasheet that shows that it can send ethernet traffic over SMBus: http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/...

Is there something similar with wireless LAN cards?

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Even if the ME talked directly to WLAN cards, maybe it wouldn't be as straightforward as a physical link Ethernet connection would. 802.11 is complicated and more involved, by comparison.

Yup. It's the 'vPro' option on Intel wireless chips.

I'm pricing out a Thinkpad T570 and they gave me this choice: http://i.imgur.com/M7OShL6.png

I wouldn't take it even if it's free.

Dell actually charges you for adding vPro.

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