System Management Bios Reference Specification Eases Implementation for Managed PCs

Intel and Industry Leaders Publish Specification to Unify BIOS Interfaces for Operating Systems and Instrumented Platforms

NEW YORK, June 16, 1997 -- Intel Corporation today announced a System Management BIOS (SM BIOS) reference specification intended to ease and speed the implementation of management capabilities in desktop and mobile PCs, as well as servers. The SM BIOS reference specification will help PC manufacturers and BIOS and software vendors better define several key areas of BIOS support for managed systems, and it provides guidelines to ease integration of BIOS information into both operating systems and higher-level management applications.

The SM BIOS reference specification, developed in cooperation with system vendors Dell Computer Corp., IBM and Hewlett-Packard, and BIOS vendors including Award Software, Phoenix Technology Ltd. and SystemSoft, provides a new baseline of industry-wide BIOS integration that will enable faster and wider deployment of management applications across PC platforms.

"This specification will help BIOS vendors and PC OEMs to interface to management applications at the same level," said Frank Gill, Intel executive vice president and general manager of the Internet and Communications Group. "Having management capabilities in today's PCs is the key to lower total cost of ownership (TCO). This reference specification helps lower TCO by providing a common reference point and a better way to provide the information that management applications need from the managed PC."

Specifying a common BIOS interface provides a framework for all computers to recognize and enhance their own operations. For example, managed systems with a BIOS based on this specification will have an easier time passing information from the system BIOS to both the OS and other management applications. It will also ease the work of system manufacturers instrumenting their platforms, and it will give PC manufacturers a way to easily incorporate pre-boot service agent protocols into managed PCs. Pre-boot protocols allow for remote booting of PCs and allow system administrators to pre-define system and machine-specific policies across the enterprise. This BIOS specification also has been updated to include technology advances such as microprocessors, memory, core logic chipsets and graphic subsystems.

"Customers want to be able to manage server and desktop hardware," said Kevin Kean, group product manager, systems management marketing at Microsoft Corp. "We are pleased that this group of BIOS and hardware vendors have worked to develop a specification that will allow customers to take advantage of the new management services that we are developing for Windows* platforms."

Leading PC Manufacturers and BIOS Vendors Support New Specification
"The SM BIOS specification addresses the way system management software interfaces with the underlying hardware, and thus provides a unified way for enterprise-wide management tools such as Intel's LANDesk Configuration Manager to manage PC resources regardless of their manufacturer," said Laurent Gharda, vice president of Award Software. "Since the Award EliteBIOS powers more than half of all x86 desktop and server systems worldwide, Award's participation in the definition of the SM BIOS standard will ensure its rapid and broad adoption."

"Systems manageability continues to be critical for our customers and this specification enables us to further enhance Dell's manageability features, such as the delivery of DMI 2.0 on Dell systems announced this week," said George Martin, Vice President and General Manager, OptiPlex Products for Dell Corporation. "Dell is proud to be a co-developer of the SM BIOS reference specification which delivers a common framework that should result in better manageability for customer environments."

"Manageability is the core of HP's strategy to reduce the cost of business computing for our customers," said Achim Kuttler, Hewlett-Packard Commercial Desktop Computing Division and TCO Program Manager. "We were pleased to contribute to the creation of this specification and are committed to supporting it, as we view the SM BIOS specification as a complement to our manageability solutions for HP platforms."

"Systems management continues to be a top priority of our customers," said Jan Janick, director of development, Commercial Desktop Systems, IBM PC Company. "IBM is pleased to have participated in this systems management standards definition with Intel. We will continue to enhance our IBM personal computers and BIOS to exploit key management features based on these tools."

"The Phoenix BIOS 4.0 implementation of this specification makes it possible to access key BIOS-based information on an ongoing basis," said Rodger Mohme, vice president of PC Platforms and Products at Phoenix Technologies. "As a result, computer manufacturers will be able to reduce the total cost of ownership by having a clearer understanding of the actual operation of a computer and any problems it may be experiencing."

"SystemSoft is addressing total cost of ownership by designing standards-based, intelligent system-level software and application products that enable PCs to correct their own problems," said David Lawrence, Vice President of Architecture and Emerging Technologies at SystemSoft Corporation. "SystemSoft contributed to the mobile portions of the SM BIOS specification, and our MobilePRO BIOS software provides key management features that will help our customers design systems that are easier to manage."

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