Enthusiast System Architecture (ESA) is a royalty-free protocol for two-way communication of PC components. Announced in 2007, ESA is used for monitoring temperature of computer hardware components such as the computer case

Computer case

A computer case is the enclosure that contains most of the components of a computer...

 and power supply unit. The latest release of the ESA specification is version 1.0, released in 2007. ESA was created by Nvidia

NVIDIA

Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...

 and some other companies.

The ESA is built around the current USB human interface device class

USB human interface device class

In computing, the USB human interface device class is a part of the USB specification for computer peripherals: it specifies a device class for human interface devices such as keyboards, mice, game controllers and alphanumeric display devices.The USB HID class is defined in a number of documents...

 specification and ESA was sent to the USB Implementers Forum

USB Implementers Forum

The USB Implementers Forum is a non-profit organisation to promote and support the Universal Serial Bus. Its main activities are the promotion and marketing of USB, Wireless USB, USB On-The-Go, and the maintenance of the specifications, as well as a compliance program.It was formed in 1995 by the...

 HID subcommittee for discussion and approval. All ESA-certified devices must pass USB

Universal Serial Bus

USB is an industry standard developed in the mid-1990s that defines the cables, connectors and protocols used in a bus for connection, communication and power supply between computers and electronic devices....

 2.0 logo compliance. Readings of temperature, voltage, current, power, activity level, water level, status, position and so on can be monitored via the nTune

NTune

NVIDIA System Tools is a collection of utilities for accessing, monitoring, and adjusting system components, including temperature and voltages with user-friendly control panels within Windows, rather than through the BIOS....

 application, while operating mode, voltages, rpm and so on can be also be adjusted in the utility.

ESA devices have a microcontroller

Microcontroller

A microcontroller is a small computer on a single integrated circuit containing a processor core, memory, and programmable input/output peripherals. Program memory in the form of NOR flash or OTP ROM is also often included on chip, as well as a typically small amount of RAM...

 that integrates a USB 2.0-compliant full-speed device controller and ESA-compliant hardware components connects to the motherboard

Motherboard

In personal computers, a motherboard is the central printed circuit board in many modern computers and holds many of the crucial components of the system, providing connectors for other peripherals. The motherboard is sometimes alternatively known as the mainboard, system board, or, on Apple...

via a USB cable. ESA-compliant hardware components are seen as 'Collections'. Within the collections there are 'Zones'. Sensors and controls are organized into zones.

External links

• http://www.nvidia.com/esa
  • Tech Brief
  • Certification Requirements
• Press Release