SysInfo DLL SDK

What’s new since V1.0 (current build V1.0 (1026)
Here is a summary of all changes that have been made to SysInfo DLL SDK.

• 2 new SysInfo functions added: SysInfoDll_Smart_GetPhysicalDeviceIDFirst() and SysInfoDll_Smart_GetPhysicalDeviceIDNext()
• System information updates for new Intel and AMD CPUs.
• Reduced the CPU information collection time on very slow CPUs.
• Removed SysInfoDll_UnallocatedClusters.
• Workaround for the AMD Llano (12h series) CPU for determining over-clocked CPU frequencies.
• DirectIO.sys updated to version 10 to allow the DIRECTIO driver service to be named by the User application.
• System information updates for new Intel and AMD CPUs.
• Improved Disk partition detection for FAT32 and FAT16 when there is no  partition table, just a Master Boot record (e.g. an image file).
• Temperature monitoring added for newer Intel and AMD CPUs. 
• Partition type strings added for many types of partitions.
• Correction to the detection of the total number of sectors for FAT volumes.
• Added DDR3 SPD version 1.1 detection.
• Improved the physical Disk drive system information when used on WinPE.
• Correction to SSD drive indicator when used on WinPE.
• Corrected a crash bug when collected GPT partition information on a  system with more than 1 GPT partition.
• Collecting Partition information and SMART data has been threaded so that any delay in a drive responding can be managed.
• Added Hot plugable drive indicator.
• Linked to nVIDIA temperature libraries.
• Network adapter MAC address now retrieved with WMI information.
• Windows 8 developer preview supported.
• CPU SysInfo corrections for systems with more than 64 CPUs.
• Minor improvement to Serial port information when run on WinPE.
• Added support for executing disk self tests (if implemented by the drive).
• SysInfo now attempts to issue SMART commands regardless if SMART enable failed.
• The SysInfo partition functions now return all volumes, regardless of whether or not they contain an NTFS/FAT file system.
• New AMD CPU (APU) System Information included.
• Correction for Intel Core 2 CPU temperature information.
• Reduced the time to measure the maximum frequency of newer Intel CPUs.
• System information summary now displays SSD's separately from HDD's.
• New Video Card system information added.
• Corrected the Video card chip type description where gibberish could be displayed after the description string.
• Additional System Information debug level logging added.
• SMART commands are now issued to the disk regardless of if SMART enable failed.
• Fixed issue with unformatted drives reporting the same capacity.
• Reduced the timeout for detecting SMART on USB drives.
• SPD memory reports changed such that invalid year and week dates are not included in the reports.
• A minimize CPU information collection API is now available.
• Improved the detection of the number of CPU cores when the "CPUID limit" BIOS setting is enabled not the normal setting).
• Partition information for Basic GPT disks now included, this includes support for disk partitions greater than 2TB.
• Updates for Sandy Bridge CPU information.
• System information Graphic card naming updates.
• Corrected the reporting of the CPU speed measurements for   over clocked Intel Core 2 CPU's.
• VIA CPU model names now reported.
• Correction to RAM module information if SMBUS RAM information is not available.
• Included Disk Partition information functions and the unallocated cluster class.
• Added new APIs for retrieving memory SPD information

The PassMark SysInfo DLL SDK provides third party developers with the components needed to integrate the SysInfo DLL library into their applications. The SysInfo provides a set of APIs for retrieving system information about hardware components in a computer, including the:

• Motherboard
• BIOS
• CPU
• Memory, including RAM module SPD information
• Video card/Display devices
• Physical and Optical Drives
• Network adapters
• USB controllers and devices
• Ports (Serial/Parallel)

The SysInfo DLL also includes a SMART component (formerly released as SmartDisk DLL SDK), which exports an interface for retrieving SMART information from SMART-enabled hard disks. The SysInfo DLL API includes the following:

• Retrieve detailed CPU specifications (eg. manufacturer, speed, cache size, instruction support, multiplier, supported features) CPU information
• Retrieve detailed Memory specifications (eg. type, speed, manufacturer, manufactured date, voltage, timings) Memory information
• Retrieve the BIOS, motherboard, RAM, port, network adapter, and drive information via WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation)
• Retrieve SMBIOS information
• Retrieve video card and monitor information
• Retrieve information about all USB controllers and any attached USB device
• Export the information retrieved above into plain text or HTML format

SysInfo SMART API
The SMART component of the SysInfo DLL (formerly SmartDisk DLL) is an independent subset of the SysInfo set of APIs for collecting SMART attributes for SMART-enabled drives. Exported functions include the following:

• Retrieve a hard disk's device information (eg. geometry, model number, serial number, rotation speed, supported features) Hard Disk device information Hard Disk features
• Retrieve the SMART attributes from a device
• Maintain a history of SMART values for a device
• Predicting date and time (if available) of Threshold Exceed Condition (TEC) based on the collected data. Applications can use this to warn users that an "imminent" failure is about to occur.
• Generate a hard disk report, which includes the device information and its SMART attributes.

What does the SysInfo DLL SDK package contain?

• The library files, consisting of SysInfo.lib, SysInfo.dll and SysInfo.h
• Example projects for the following languages - C/C++, C#, Visual Basic
• A User Guide (HTML format) that defines the available functions in the DLL

To see a sample of what is possible using the SDK, see the free utility PassMark's DiskCheckup which is built using SysInfo DLL to report SMART attributes of your drives and PassMark's RAMMon which reports RAM details.