Dmi Components; Manageable Products; Ci Module; Dmi Browser - NEC POWERMATE P - SERVICE MANUAL 1995 Service And Reference Manual

2-34 Setup and Operation

DMI Components

The NEC DMI consists of two major functional components:
n
the Component Interface (CI) module
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Windows Management Information Format (MIF) Browser.
The CI module provides the instrumentation and interface between the BIOS and the DMI
Service Layer (SL). The DMI Browser displays and manages existing attributes in the
Management Information Format (MIF) database. The Desktop Management Task Force
(DMTF) provides the DOS Service Layer, Windows Service Layer, and MIF database
structure.

Manageable Products

Manageable products are hardware, software, or peripherals that occupy or are attached to
a desktop computer or network server. These can be hard disks, word processors, CD-
ROMs, printers, operating systems, graphics boards, modems, etc. Manageable products or
components can come with the system or be added later. Each component supplies
information to the MIF database by means of a MIF file that contains the product's
pertinent management information.
Each product may or may not include an instrumentation module in order to provide real-
time support.

CI Module

The CI module is a Windows Direct Interface application provided by NEC Technologies.
The module uses the CI to communicate with the SL and provides management for a set of
components defined in the PC system group standard MIF. The NEC implementation of this
MIF provides management for a variety of attributes. Windows starts the CI module which
must be running in the background. The module is added to the Windows StartUp program
group during DMI setup.

DMI Browser

The NEC DMI Browser is a Windows application provided by NEC Technologies. The
Browser uses the MI to provide access to MIF attributes and their respective values and to
provide the ability to set attributes and manage DMI components.
The Browser is a local application; it only accesses the local MIF database. The Browser
lets you access MIF attributes according to the structure defined by the DMTF. It is not
intended to be a general PC management application. If a more comprehensive management
application is desired, use a product such as Intel's LANDesk Manager™.