Inflatable Restraint Side Impact Sensor (SIS)
WARNING: This page is about a different car, the 2007 GMC Sierra and 2007 Chevrolet Silverado. However, it is still accessible from the selected car via links, so may be relevant.
The side impact sensor (SIS) contains a sensing device which monitors vehicle acceleration and velocity changes to detect side collisions that are sever enough to warrant side SIR deployment. The SIS is not part of the deployment loop, but instead provides an input to the SDM. The SDM contains a microprocessor that performs calculations using the measured accelerations and compares these calculations to a value stored in memory.