'\" te
.\" Copyright (c) 2005, Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved
.TH smbios 7D "26 August 2005" "SunOS 5.11" "Devices"
.SH NAME
smbios \- System Management BIOS image
.SH SYNOPSIS
.LP
.nf
\fB/dev/smbios\fR 
.fi

.SH DESCRIPTION
.sp
.LP
The \fBsmbios\fR device is a character special file that provides access to a snapshot of the System Management BIOS (\fBSMBIOS\fR) image exported by the current system. \fBSMBIOS\fR is an industry-standard mechanism that enables low-level system software to export hardware configuration information to higher-level system management software. The \fBSMBIOS\fR data format is defined by the Distributed Management Task Force (\fBDMTF\fR). For more information on \fBSMBIOS\fR and to obtain a copy of the \fBSMBIOS\fR specification and implementation guidelines, refer to http://\fIwww.dmtf.org\fR.
.sp
.LP
The \fBSMBIOS\fR image consists of a table of structures, each describing some aspect of the system software or hardware configuration. The content of the image varies widely by platform and BIOS vendor and may not exist on some systems. You can use the \fBsmbios\fR(1M) utility to inspect the contents of the \fBSMBIOS\fR image and copy it to a file.
.SH ATTRIBUTES
.sp
.LP
See \fBattributes\fR(5) for a description of the following attributes:
.sp

.sp
.TS
tab() box;
cw(2.75i) |cw(2.75i) 
lw(2.75i) |lw(2.75i) 
.
ATTRIBUTE TYPEATTRIBUTE VALUE
_
Availabilitysystem/library/platform
_
Interface StabilityCommitted
.TE

.SH SEE ALSO
.sp
.LP
\fBprtdiag\fR(1M), \fBsmbios\fR(1M), \fBattributes\fR(5)
.sp
.LP
\fISystem Management BIOS Reference Specification\fR, Version 2, Release 4 \(em 2005
.SH NOTES
.sp
.LP
The implementation of a System Management BIOS image is entirely at the discretion of the system and BIOS vendors. Not all systems export a \fBSMBIOS\fR. The \fBSMBIOS\fR 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.