Is anyone working with I2C or SMBus devices for HA?

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

My new PC motherboard comes with an I2C pin header.  I would think this
connector would have remarkable extensivity in the HA world since it is
widely used to monitor the "health" of the PC by reporting fan RPM, power
supply voltages, case and CPU temperatures, etc.

Has anyone out there done something like this already?  My preliminary
Google search has so far come up blank.  There was some discussion of it in
the past:

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.home.automation/browse_frm/thread/449b44
d7b643ae73/d106a8e141a6676b?lnk=st&q=SMBus+home+automation&rnum=2#d106a8e141
a6676b

Phillips has a lot of appnotes that look a lot like things that would be HA
adaptable at:

http://www.semiconductors.philips.com/catalog/282/50808/41735/index.html#417
35

 I2C/SMBus - [82] -  -
  A/D and D/A converters - [1] -  -
  I²C bus buffers - [9] -  -
  I²C bus controllers - [3] -  -
  I²C bus repeaters/hubs/extenders - [9] -  -
  I²C DIP switch - [4] -  -
  I²C general purpose I/O - [16] -  -
  I²C LED display control - [10] -  -
  I²C multiplexers/switches - [9] -  -
  I²C serial EEPROM/RAM - [10] -  -
  I²C temperature/voltage monitors - [7] -  -
  I²C voltage level translators - [4] -  -

OK - never mind!  I narrowed down the search and discovered that Mike
Baptiste answered this question, previously posed here in 2000/11/14:

"I'd stick with RS-485.  Much easier to use/design in, lots of silicon
available, including ESD hardened chips, long distances (up to 4000'),
and much higher speeds than you'll ever see in I2C."

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.home.automation/browse_frm/thread/9dc04f
f9a645a24/ce25f40d10ab45bc?q=i2c&rnum=1#ce25f40d10ab45bc

Has anything changed in the last six(!) years?

--
Bobby G.