The paper contributes to understanding the differential structure in a $C^∗$-algebra. Refining the Banach $(D^∗_p)$-algebras investigated by Kissin and Shulman as noncommutative analogues of the algebra $C^p[a,b]$ of 𝑝-times continuously differentiable functions, we investigate a Frechet $(D^∗\infty)$-subalgebra $\mathcal{B}$ of a $C^∗$-algebra as a noncommutative analogue of the algebra $C^\infty[a,b]$ of smooth functions. Regularity properties like spectral invariance, closure under functional calculi and domain invariance of homomorphisms are derived expressing $\mathcal{B}$ as an inverse limit over 𝑛 of Banach $(D^∗_n)$-algebras. Several examples of such smooth algebras are exhibited.