DMI

11/23/96

DMI (DESKTOP MANAGEMENT INTERFACE) -- DMI is a technique for communicating information about hardware configuration and for allowing high level software to reconfigure hardware without directly manipulating registers. Information about specific components is stored in Management Information Format (.MIF) Files that include component information such as location, manufacturer, configuration and installation date, The MIFs are accessed by and maintained by a DMI management layer of software whose nature will vary with the OS used. For MSDOS, it is a TSR loaded by AUTOEXEC.BAT. The DMI specification has been developed by a consortium of large hardware and software companies.

The DMI Service Layer can be used either to obtain information about hardware components or to request changes in configuration such as altering Port assignments. Although the DMI specification is relatively new, some DMI compliant hardware is on the market.

One primary goal of DMI seems to be to provide system administrators a tool for remote analysis and control of hardware on large companies where physical access to the machines by one person is difficult or impossible.