8

BIOS ROM

8.1Introduction

The Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) of the computer is a collection of machine language programs stored as firmware in read-only memory (ROM). The BIOS ROM includes such functions as Power-On Self Test (POST), PCI device initialization, Plug 'n Play support, power management activities, and the Setup utility. The firmware contained in the BIOS ROM supports the following operating systems and specifications:

■DOS 6.2

■Windows 3.1, 95, 98SE, 2000, XP Professional, and XP Home

■Windows NT 4.0 (SP6 required for PnP support)

■OS/2 ver 2.1 and OS/2 Warp

■SCO Unix

■DMI 2.1

■Intel Wired for Management (WfM) ver. 2.2

■Alert Standard Format (ASF) 2.0

■ACPI and OnNow

■SMBIOS 2.4

■Intel PXE boot ROM for the integrated LAN controller

■BIOS Boot Specification 1.01

■Enhanced Disk Drive Specification 3.0

■“El Torito” Bootable CD-ROM Format Specification 1.0

■ATAPI Removeable Media Device BIOS Specification 1.0

The BIOS firmware is contained in a 1024 x 8 (8 Mb) flash ROM part. The runtime portion of the BIOS resides in a 128KB block from E0000h to FFFFFh.

This chapter includes the following topics:

■ROM flashing (8.2), page 8-2

■Boot functions (8.3), page 8-3

■Setup utility (8.4), page 8-6

■Client management functions (8.5), page 8-16

■SMBIOS support (8.6), page 8-18

■USB legacy support (8.7), page 8-18

 

Technical Reference Guide

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