On Fri, 10 Jun 2011, Mark Lord wrote:

Something many of us don't realize is that nearly all Intel chipsets
have a built-in hardware watchdog timer.  This includes chipset for
consumer desktop boards as well as the big iron server stuff.

It's the "i8xx_tco" driver in the kernel enables use of them:

That's the old module name, but yes, it is very useful in desktops and
laptops (when it works).   Server-class hardware will have a baseboard
management unit that can really power-cycle the system instead of just
rebooting.

And test it first before you depend on it triggering at a remote location,
as the firmware might cause the Intel chipset watchdog to actually hang the
box instead of causing a proper reboot (happens on the IBM thinkpad T43, for
example).

-- 
  "One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
  them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
  where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
  Henrique Holschuh