It carries clock, data, and instructions and is based on Philips' I☬ serial bus protocol.
The SMBus was defined by Intel and Duracell in 1994. Although SMBus devices usually can't identify their functionality, a new PMBus coalition has extended SMBus to include conventions allowing that. The SMBus is generally not user configurable or accessible. PCI add-in cards may connect to an SMBus segment.Ī device can provide manufacturer information, indicate its model/part number, save its state for a suspend event, report different types of errors, accept control parameters and return status. Other devices might include temperature, fan or voltage sensors, lid switches, clock generator, and RGB lighting. It is derived from I☬ for communication with low-bandwidth devices on a motherboard, especially power related chips such as a laptop's rechargeable battery subsystem (see Smart Battery System). Most commonly it is found in computer motherboards for communication with the power source for ON/OFF instructions. The System Management Bus (abbreviated to SMBus or SMB) is a single-ended simple two-wire bus for the purpose of lightweight communication.
