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System Management BIOS (SMBIOS) is a specification to lay out data structures (and access methods) in a BIOS which allows a user or application to store and retrieve information specifically about the PC in question. Circa 1999, it became part of the domain of the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF). Before this integration, SMBIOS had been known as the Desktop Management Interface (DMI). At approximately the same time Microsoft required OEMs and BIOS vendors to support the interface/data set in order to have Microsoft certification.