What then makes a battery 'smart'? Definitions still vary among organizations and manufacturers. The SBS forum states that a 'smart' battery must be able to provide SoC indications. Benchmarq was the first company to commercialize the concept of the battery fuel gauge technology. Early IC chips date back to 1990. Several manufacturers followed suit and produced 'smart' chips for batteries.
During the early nineties, numerous 'smart' battery architectures with a SoC read-out have emerged. They range from the single wire system, the two-wire system and the system management bus (SMBus). Most two-wire systems are based on the SMBus protocol. This book will address the single wire system and the SMBus.
