Abstract: Managing a task in a system management controller may be accomplished by storing information regarding the task in a process control buffer. A state of the task stored in the process control buffer may be examined to determine if it is active. If so, then a task counter contained in the process control buffer can be examined to determine if the task should be run immediately, or at a later time. If it is immediately, the task is immediately executed. If not, then timer fields may be examined to determine precisely when the task should be executed. The task counter may also indicate the number of times the task should be executed, or if it should be executed indefinitely. Thus, the method may be restarted with a new process control buffer if the timer fields are not less than or equal to a current time.