System Management BIOS

Not to be confused with DMI.

System Management BIOS

Status	Published
Year started	1999
Latest version	3.0.0 February 2015
Organization	Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF)
Related standards	Desktop Management Interface (DMI) and Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM)
Domain	BIOS management
Abbreviation	SMBIOS
Website	www.dmtf.org/standards/smbios

In computing, the System Management BIOS (SMBIOS) specification defines data structures (and access methods) that can be used to read information stored in the BIOS of a computer. Circa 1999, it became part of the domain of the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF). Before this integration, SMBIOS functionality had the name DMIBIOS, since it interacted with Desktop Management Interface (DMI). At approximately the same time Microsoft started to require that OEMs and BIOS vendors support the interface/data-set in order to have Microsoft certification.

The DMTF released the version 3.0.0 of the specification on February 12, 2015.

Structure types

As of version 2.7.1, the SMBIOS specification defines these structure types:

Type	Description
0	BIOS Information
1	System Information
2	Baseboard (or Module) Information
3	System Enclosure or Chassis
4	Processor Information
5	Memory Controller Information (Obsolete)
6	Memory Module Information (Obsolete)
7	Cache Information
8	Port Connector Information
9	System Slots
10	On Board Devices Information
11	OEM Strings
12	System Configuration Options
13	BIOS Language Information
14	Group Associations
15	System Event Log
16	Physical Memory Array
17	Memory Device
18	32-Bit Memory Error Information
19	Memory Array Mapped Address
20	Memory Device Mapped Address
21	Built-in Pointing Device
22	Portable Battery
23	System Reset
24	Hardware Security
25	System Power Controls
26	Voltage Probe
27	Cooling Device
28	Temperature Probe
29	Electrical Current Probe
30	Out-of-Band Remote Access
31	Boot Integrity Services (BIS) Entry Point
32	System Boot Information
33	64-Bit Memory Error Information
34	Management Device
35	Management Device Component
36	Management Device Threshold Data
37	Memory Channel
38	IPMI Device Information
39	System Power Supply
40	Additional Information
41	Onboard Devices Extended Information
42	Management Controller Host Interface
126	Inactive
127	End-of-Table
128–255	Available for system- and OEM- specific information

Accessing SMBIOS data

From Linux

The Linux kernel contains an SMBIOS decoder, allowing systems administrators to inspect system hardware configuration and to enable or disable certain workarounds for problems with specific systems, based on the provided SMBIOS information.

The userspace command-line utility dmidecode(8) inspects this data. Information provided by this utility typically includes the system manufacturer, model name, serial number, BIOS version and asset tag, as well as a lot of other details of varying level of interest and reliability, depending on the system manufacturer. The information often includes usage status for the CPU sockets, expansion slots (including AGP, PCI and ISA) and memory module slots, and the list of I/O ports (including serial, parallel and USB).

From Microsoft Windows

Microsoft specifies WMI as the preferred mechanism for accessing SMBIOS information from Microsoft Windows.

On Windows systems that support it (XP and later), some SMBIOS information can be viewed with either the WMIC utility with 'BIOS'/'MEMORYCHIP'/'BASEBOARD' and similar parameters, or by looking in the Windows Registry under HKLM\HARDWARE\DESCRIPTION\System

Various software utilities can retrieve raw SMBIOS data, including smbiosw and SMBIOS Peek.

From UEFI

In UEFI, the "SmbiosView" shell application can retrieve the SMBIOS data.

See also

• Desktop Management Interface (DMI)
• Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM)

External links

• Official website
• System Management BIOS (SMBIOS) Reference Specification 3.0.0, DMTF, February 12, 2015