# acidanthera/VirtualSMC

SMC emulator layer

Repository: https://github.com/acidanthera/VirtualSMC
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/virtualsmc
Language: C++
License: BSD-3-Clause
License Family: permissive
Topics: virtualsmc
Last push: 2026-04-09T13:44:20+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 64/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 76, release rhythm 28, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2931, "days_push": 146, "days_rel": 422, "gap_med": 89, "n_releases_24m": 4}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1796, forks 230 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:37.607569+00:00)

## What it is
VirtualSMC is an advanced Apple SMC (System Management Controller) emulator implemented as a macOS kernel extension, requiring the Lilu kext for full functionality. It emulates SMC hardware on non-Apple hardware (Hackintosh) and is extensible via plugins for sensor and key support.

## Use cases
- emulate Apple SMC on a Hackintosh
- report CPU and GPU temperature sensors to macOS
- make macOS boot on non-Apple hardware
- replace missing SMC keys for laptop sensor support
- enable smcdebug boot argument on macOS

## When to choose
- you are building a Hackintosh and need SMC emulation for macOS to boot and run
- you need sensor monitoring (temperatures, fans, voltage) in macOS on custom hardware
- you need per-model SMC generation tuning and plugin extensibility

## When to avoid
- you run macOS on genuine Apple hardware with a working SMC
- you need a userspace SMC monitoring tool rather than a kernel emulator
- you want to disable SMC entirely without flashing dedicated firmware

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: security, plugin-system
- domain: operating-systems, hardware, developer-tools
- platform: cpp
- tags: hackintosh, kext, smc, lilu, kernel-extension, acidanthera, emulation, macos

## Member repositories
- acidanthera/VirtualSMC (main) score 64

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:37.607569+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:22:48.434916+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/acidanthera/VirtualSMC (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:37.607569+00:00, sha 09a2fe1f4a3b)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.