(SBD) A method to monitor a rechargeable battery pack, initiated by Duracell and Intel. An special IC in the battery pack monitors the battery and reports information to the SMBus. This information might include: type, model number, manufacturer, characteristics, discharge rate, predicted remaining capacity, almost-discharged alarm so that the PC can shut down gracefully temperature and Voltage to provide safe fast-charging. {Smart Battery System Implementers Forum (http://www.sbs-forum.org/)}. (1999-08-08)