3.4. System Management Interrupts

System management interrupts (SMIs) are used to offer extended functionality, such as legacy hardware device emulation. They can also be used for system management tasks. SMIs are similar to NMIs in that they use a special electrical signalling line directly into the CPU, and are generally not able to be masked.

When an SMI is received, the CPU will enter System Management Mode (SMM). In this mode, a very low-level handler routine is run to handle the SMIs. The SMM is typically provided directly from the system management firmware, often the BIOS or the EFI.

SMIs are most often used to provide legacy hardware emulation. A common example is to emulate a diskette drive. If there is no diskette attached to the system, a virtualized network-managed emulation can be used instead. When the operating system attempts to access the diskette, an SMI is triggered and a handler provides the operating system with an emulated device instead. The operating system then treats the emulation as though it were the legacy device itself.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Real Time can be adversely affected by SMIs because they take place without the direct involvement of the operating system. A poorly written SMI handling routine may consume many milliseconds of CPU time, and the operating system is not able to preempt the handler if it needs to. This situation creates periodic high latencies in an otherwise well-tuned, highly responsive system. Unfortunately, because SMI handlers can be used by a vendor to manage CPU temperature and fan control, it is not possible to disable them. Instead, it is recommended that you notify the vendor of the problem.