Desktop Management Interface

Not to be confused with SMBIOS or Direct Media Interface.
Desktop Management Interface
AbbreviationDMI
StatusSuperseded by CIM
Year started1994; 30 years ago (1994)
OrganizationDistributed Management Task Force
Base standardsSMBIOS, WBEM, WS-Management
DomainDesktop management
Websitewww.dmtf.org/standards/dmi

The Desktop Management Interface (DMI) generates a standard framework for managing and tracking components in a desktop, notebook or server computer, by abstracting these components from the software that manages them. The development of DMI, 2.0 version June 24, 1998,[1] marked the first move by the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) into desktop-management standards.[2] Before the introduction of DMI, no standardized source of information could provide details about components in a personal computer.

Due to the rapid development of DMTF technologies, such as Common Information Model (CIM), the DMTF defined an "End of Life" process for DMI, which ended on March 31, 2005.[3]

From 1999, Microsoft required OEMs and BIOS vendors to support the DMI interface/data-set in order to have Microsoft certification[citation needed].

  1. ^ "Desktop Management Interface Specification" (PDF). Distributed Management Task Force. 24 June 1998. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 October 2012. Retrieved 28 September 2018. This document describes the Desktop Management Interface, or DMI, that acts as a layer of abstraction between these two worlds
  2. ^ "Definition of: DMI". PC Magazine Encyclopedia. pcmag.com. Archived from the original on 9 October 2012. Retrieved 2009-09-28. The first desktop management standard from the DMTF.
  3. ^ "DMI | dmtf.org". www.dmtf.org. Retrieved 2021-04-19. Due to the rapid advancement of DMTF technologies, such as CIM, DMTF defined an end of life process for its Desktop Management Interface (DMI), which concluded March 31, 2005.