First Battery Accuracy Guidelines Increase Battery Run-Time Up To 20 Percent

Smart Battery Forum Release System Management Bus 2.0 Specification

SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 21, 2000 -- The Smart Battery System Implementers Forum (SBS-IF) today announced the first Smart Battery Accuracy Testing Guidelines and availability of the System Management Bus (SMBus) 2.0 Specification. The Smart Battery Guidelines provides a common way for system manufacturers to determine accurate battery capacity that can increase battery run-time up to 20 percent. The SMBus 2.0 specification allows the SMBus to be extended to add in cards, reducing PCI power and simplifying Plug and Play support.

New Smart Battery Guidelines
The Smart Battery Testing Guidelines provide a standardized means to assure smart battery accuracy within portable systems. Until now, system manufacturers have been unable to realize the full potential of batteries because of inconsistent information reported by the battery electronics. Current portable battery designs lose significant battery run time due to excessive margins that force the user to recharge the battery earlier than needed. Reducing these margins allows system manufacturers to boost battery run time up to 20 percent. Manufacturers of portable equipment can now implement aggressive power management strategies that reliably use the maximum available battery capacity. The Smart Battery Accuracy Testing Specification will be released to the public in September 2000.

"Today, system manufacturers must set conservative charge termination and battery shutdown points reducing system battery run time," said Shigeo Tanaka, director of Platform Design at Fujitsu, Ltd. "The new Smart Battery Accuracy Testing Guidelines provide a standardized means to assure smart battery accuracy within our systems."

System Management Bus 2.0 Specification Available Now
The System Management Bus (SMBus) is a low power, low cost, communication link between a wide variety of devices including batteries, power devices, and system sensors. The SMBus 2.0 now provides flexible addressing and Plug and Play support that allows the SMBus to migrate onto PCI add-in cards. The new addressing mechanism of SMBus 2.0 allows devices to report systems faults, even if the operating system does not load. The SMBus remains active even during power management states when the PCI devices are turned off, allowing communication during sleep states without waking up the power-hungry PCI bus. Additionally, SMBus 2.0 also defines a robust alternative electrical specification for designs whose signals must cross the PCI connector. The SMBus 2.0 Specification is available now at http://www.smbus.org/specs/.

"Intel continues to develop and deliver new technologies and work with the industry to enhance the mobile PC platform,"said Don MacDonald, marketing director, Intel's Mobile Platform Group. "The combination of sub 1 watt low voltage mobile Pentium® III processors and industry initiatives, such as smart battery, can deliver significant increases in battery run-time for notebooks."

Smart Battery System Implementers Forum
The Smart Battery Accuracy Testing Guidelines and SMBus 2.0 specification were jointly developed between system manufacturers, battery manufactures, and smart battery electronics providers within the SBS-IF. The promoters include battery suppliers Duracell, Moltech Power Systems, and Toshiba Battery Co., Ltd., and semiconductor manufacturers Intel Corporation, Linear Technology Inc., Maxim Integrated Products, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, PowerSmart, Inc., Semtech Corporation, and Unitrode Corporation, a subsidiary of Texas Instruments and system vendor Fujitsu, Ltd. Details on the new Smart Battery Accuracy Testing Guidelines and the SMBus 2.0 Specification will be presented at the Intel Developer Forum Conference on Aug. 24, 2000.

About IDF
The Intel Developer Forum Conference is Intel's premier technical forum comprising nearly 250 sessions and hands-on labs and more than 100 demonstrations of cutting-edge products and technologies. IDF attracts thousands of hardware and software developers worldwide. Now in its third year, the semi-annual conference provides hardware OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), IHVs (independent hardware vendors), and ISVs (independent software vendors) with in-depth information on Intel technologies and initiatives. More information on the Intel Developer Forum can be found at http://developer.intel.com/idf. Updated information is available between Intel Developer Forums by subscribing to the Intel Developer Update Magazine at http://developer.intel.com/update/.

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