The CIOS asset model is the live identity of an MDCX plant: every sensor and setpoint is a dotted path, not a flat tag dump.
A path names a location (a slot that does not change when you swap hardware). The physical device sitting in that slot has its own serial. Telemetry is stored on the path, so history stays continuous across a replacement.
Path syntax
Take sgp01.pod002.cdu000.fws.supply.flow and read it left to right:
| Segment | Token | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Site | sgp01 | Site identity: a city code plus a sequence (sgp + 01) |
| Pod | pod002 | The compute container on that site |
| Device | cdu000 | A coolant distribution unit inside the pod |
| Subsystem | fws.supply | Facility water, supply side |
| Point | flow | The quantity being read |
Segments are lowercase. Device instances pad to three digits (cdu000). Optional location segments cascade in a fixed order: loop (fws / tcs), side (supply / return), phase (l1 / l2 / l3 / n). A point without those extras is the whole-device quantity (for example a tap-off unit's total current).
Query supports globs: * is one segment, ** is any depth.
Typed dictionaries
Asset types, quantities, and locations are closed vocabularies. You do not invent a type name or a quantity on the plant. If a driver reports an unregistered quantity, it is dropped — it never enters the model.
Types include pods, tanks, racks, nodes, GPUs, CDUs, chillers, switchgear, BESS, and the rest of the published type list. Quantities include temperature, flow, pressure, current, voltage, power, energy, status, and similar. Locations qualify a quantity (which loop, which side, which phase). The three dictionaries are mutually exclusive: a word used as a type cannot also be a quantity or a location.
Telemetry points
A telemetry point is the leaf of an asset path. You read it; you do not invent a parallel naming scheme.
Each quantity has a canonical unit (temperature in °C, flow in L/min, pressure in kPa, current in A). Gateways convert vendor units on the way in, so dashboards and queries always see the canonical unit. Status is an enum (ok, standby, warning, fault, maintenance, offline), not a vendor-private code.
Asset model vs. published 3D packages
The CIOS asset model is a path-addressed runtime telemetry model. The OpenUSD files you can download from MDCX product pages are geometry interchange packages for partners, factory, and Designer export. They are not the same object.
CIOS does not load a published .usdc file as its runtime plant model. Shared solution codes do not make the mesh package and the live path tree the same thing. For the interchange spec, see USD output specification.