Hardware Monitor

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What Does Hardware Monitor Mean?

A hardware monitor is a software application that reads data from all available hardware sensors in a system. Hardware monitors are typically smart electronically distributed sensor trackers that can be downloaded for use on a system.

Techopedia Explains Hardware Monitor

Originally released in 2002 for the Mac Operating System, the hardware monitor was designed to keep track of various functionalities and states of all the hardware sensors available in the computer. It was later made available to other operating systems. The hardware monitor is responsible for reading and visually displaying or exporting data values that it receives from sensors.

This includes the following sensor types:

  • Battery data of portable computers
  • Voltage sensors
  • Current (amperage) sensors
  • Fan speed sensors
  • Sensors for pulse-width controlled fans
  • Power and load sensors
  • Ambient light sensors
  • User-defined artificial sensors to monitor the operating system
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.

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