摘要 |
A computer system is described where one or more processors executing operating system (OS) code and System Management (SM) code can access the same host interface of an embedded controller. The embedded controller, in turn, is coupled to one or more system devices such as an IDE power plane switch, a thermal A/D monitor, a System Management Bus (SMBus), etc. The embedded controller asserts a system management interrupt (SMI) to the system management environment of the processing unit(s) as well as a system control interrupt to the operating system environment of the processing unit(s). Accordingly, the processing unit(s) executing operating system code and system management code is able to control and/or monitor a number of system devices in the computer system by communicating with the embedded controller via its host interface and interrupts.
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