3
DESKTOP MANAGEMENT INTERFACE
This chapter describes an important feature of HP’s new style BIOS, the Desktop Management
Interface or DMI.
DMI INFORMATION STRUCTURE
This BIOS presents a new method for storing and accessing information about the PC, called
the Desktop Management Interface or DMI.
The system administrator uses the DMI to access information about the PC, such as the BIOS
version number, the serial number, the processor type, and the size of the hard disk drive. This
information is stored in the Management Information Format Database, or MIF.
Pointers are used to indicate the position of a table or a string value. The following rules apply
to pointers:
•
Pointers must never be zero. For empty strings, the pointer must point to a null (zero)
value.
•
Far pointers are in Intel (little endian) format, with the segment in the high word and the
offset in the low word.
All string values are terminated by a null (zero) value.
