DMTF Marks 20th Anniversary of SMBIOS with Significant 3.0 Release

Posted on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 07:33

Enabling management of billions of systems since its introduction in 1995, DMTF's widely used SMBIOS standard continues to improve to meet modern needs

PORTLAND, Ore. – February 17, 2015 – DMTF today announced the latest release of the premier standard for delivering management information via system firmware, System Management BIOS (SMBIOS) Reference Specification, Version 3, which extends support for 64-bit architecture systems. Since its release in 1995, the widely implemented SMBIOS standard has simplified the management of more than two billion client and server systems. To download SMBIOS Version 3.0 click here.

For OS-present, OS-absent, and pre-OS environments, SMBIOS offers motherboard and system vendors a standard format to present management information about their products. By extending the system firmware interface, SMBIOS can be used with management applications that use the DMTF’s Common Information Model (CIM) or another technology, such as SNMP. It eliminates the need for error-prone operations, such as probing system hardware for presence detection.

“As an organization, DMTF champions some of the most innovative new approaches in the industry, while maintaining its commitment to its roster of long-standing, respected standards,” said Jeff Hilland, president, DMTF. "We’re proud of SMBIOS and its broad support across the industry – the DMTF is committed to continuing to update SMBIOS as advancements in hardware dictate.”

Originally designed for Intel® processor architecture systems, SMBIOS now includes support for IA-32 (x86), x64 (x86-64, Intel64, AMD64, EM64T), Intel® Itanium® architecture, 32-bit ARM (Aarch32) and 64-bit ARM (Aarch64).

Detailed information on all DMTF standards can be found at www.dmtf.org/standards. Those interested in supporting and joining DMTF’s efforts to identify and create standards can learn more at http://www.dmtf.org/join.

About DMTF

The DMTF is an industry standards organization working to simplify the manageability of network-accessible technologies through open and collaborative efforts by leading technology companies. DMTF creates and drives the international adoption of interoperable management standards, supporting implementations that enable the management of diverse traditional and emerging technologies including cloud, virtualization, network and infrastructure. The organization spans the globe with member companies and alliance partners from varied industry sectors, led by a board of directors from Broadcom Corporation; CA Technologies; Cisco; Citrix Systems, Inc.; Dell; Emerson Network Power; Fujitsu; Hitachi, Ltd.; HP; Intel Corporation; Microsoft Corporation; NetApp; Oracle; Software AG; Telecom Italia and VMware, Inc. Information about the DMTF’s leadership, technologies and how to participate can be found at www.dmtf.org.