DMTF Releases SMBIOS 2.5.

Revised Version of Widely Used Management Specification Addresses the Latest Hardware Advancements

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The Distributed Management Task Force, Inc. (DMTF[R]), the industry organization leading the development, adoption and promotion of interoperable management initiatives and standards, today announced the release of the latest version of the System Management BIOS (SMBIOS) Specification, Version 2, Release 5. The widely implemented SMBIOS standard addresses how motherboard and system vendors present management information about their products in a standard format by extending the BIOS interface on x86 architecture systems. SMBIOS 2.5 includes new multi-core, multi-thread and 64-bit extension processor characteristics and new processor values, as well as updated System Slot descriptions. In addition, the latest version adds Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) and Serial-Attached SCSI (SAS) references.

"SMBIOS is a widely implemented, underlying technology that plays an integral role in distributed management," said Winston Bumpus, president, DMTF. "This standard provides critical information that management programs require to be effective, and the DMTF is committed to continuing to update SMBIOS so that it fulfills the management needs of users worldwide."

SMBIOS is designed to allow developers of management instrumentation to provide generic routines for translating from SMBIOS to the format used by their chosen management technology, whether it is the DMTF's Common Information Model (CIM) or another method. This eliminates the need for more error-prone operations, like probing system hardware for presence detection. In addition, the specification allows BIOS developers to implement the necessary extensions that will allow the hardware on their products, and other system-related information, to be accurately determined by users of the defined interfaces.

The DMTF's SMBIOS 2.5 specification is available for download at http://www.dmtf.org/standards/published_documents/DSP0134.pdf.

About the DMTF

With more than 3,500 active participants representing 39 countries and nearly 200 organizations, the Distributed Management Task Force, Inc. (DMTF) is the industry organization leading the development, adoption and promotion of interoperable management initiatives and standards. DMTF management technologies include the Common Diagnostic Model (CDM) initiative, the Systems Management Architecture for Server Hardware (SMASH) initiative, Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) - including protocols such as CIM-XML and Web Services for Management (WS-Management) - which are all based on the Common Information Model (CIM). Information about the DMTF technologies and activities can be found at www.dmtf.org.