Intel® Server Board Set SE8500HW4

BIOS User Interface

11. BIOS User Interface

11.1 Overview

There are two types of consoles used for displaying the user interface, graphical or textual. Graphics consoles are in 800x600 mode (pixels). Text consoles are 80 characters x 25 lines.

Console output is partitioned into three areas, the System Activity/State, Logo/Diagnostic, and Current Activity windows. The System Activity Window displays information about the current state of the system. It provides indication to the user if the system is active, hung, or requires user intervention. The Logo/Diagnostic Window displays the OEM splash screen logo or a diagnostic screen. The Current Activity Window displays information about the currently executing portion of POST as well as user prompts or status messages.

System State Window

Logo/Diagnostic Window

Current Activity Window

Figure 23. BIOS Display

11.1.1System State Window

The top row of the screen is reserved for the system state window. On a graphics console, the row is 800x19. On a text console the row is 80x1.

The system state window may be in one of three forms, either an activity bar that scrolls while the system is busy, a progress bar that measures percent complete for the current task, or an attention required bar. The attention bar is useful for tasks that require user attention to continue.

11.1.2Logo/Diagnostic Window

The middle portion of the screen is reserved for the Logo/Diagnostic Window. On a graphics console the screen is 800x486. On a text console the window is 80x19.

The Logo/Diagnostic Window may be in one of two forms; either a logo splash screen is displayed, in Quiet Boot mode, or a system summary and diagnostic screen is displayed, in verbose mode. The default is to display the logo in Quiet Boot mode. If no logo is present in the flash ROM, or Quiet Boot mode is disabled in the system configuration, the summary and diagnostic screen is displayed. During a Quiet Boot, if the user presses <Esc>, the system transfers from the logo screen to the diagnostic screen.

Revision 1.0

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Intel order number D22893-001