Slide 2 of 9
Notes:
Why utilize the SMBus device driver? Current SMBus drivers are hardware specific and don’t coordinate SMBus access with ACPI. The Microsoft Windows 2000 SMBus driver is an example. More importantly, multiple SMBus branches are not possible utilizing the standard Microsoft driver in Windows 2000. This severely limits the implementation options if an embedded controller is needed along with a chip set that supports SMBus. This architecture is common in many mobile platforms, and is gaining acceptance in many desktop systems as the need for additional system support functionality increases.
By developing, testing and fully documenting a standard SMBus driver that works under Win98 and Win2000, system development resources can be concentrated in areas of product differentiation. The common interface reduces time to market of SMBus solutions and allows for a future migration path without dedicating internal resources to the development.
