smbios(7D)							      Devices								smbios(7D)

NAME

       smbios - System Management BIOS image

SYNOPSIS

       /dev/smbios

DESCRIPTION

       The  smbios  device is a character special file that provides access to a snapshot of the System Management BIOS (SMBIOS) image exported by
       the current system. SMBIOS is an industry-standard mechanism that enables low-level system software to export hardware configuration infor-
       mation  to  higher-level system management software. The SMBIOS data format is defined by the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF). For
       more information on SMBIOS and to obtain a copy of the SMBIOS specification and implementation guidelines, refer to http://www.dmtf.org.

       The SMBIOS image consists of a table of structures, each describing some aspect of the system software or hardware configuration. The  con-
       tent  of  the  image  varies  widely  by  platform and BIOS vendor and may not exist on some systems. You can use the smbios(1M) utility to
       inspect the contents of the SMBIOS image and copy it to a file.

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for a description of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability		     |SUNWkvm.i 		   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Interface Stability	     |Stable			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       prtdiag(1M), smbios(1M), attributes(5)

       System Management BIOS Reference Specification, Version 2, Release 4 -- 2005

NOTES

       The implementation of a System Management BIOS image is entirely at the discretion of the system and BIOS vendors. Not all systems export a
       SMBIOS.	The  SMBIOS  structure	content  varies widely between systems and BIOS vendors and frequently does not comply with the guidelines
       included in the specification. For example, some structure fields may not be filled in by the BIOS, while others may be filled in with non-
       conforming values.

SunOS 5.11							  26 August 2005							smbios(7D)