Questions tagged [bios]
Basic Input/Output System, the system firmware found especially in IBM PC compatible computers. Use this tag only for the firmware part; for ‘DOS BIOS’, use [dos] instead.
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Why did CP/M and MS-DOS use the BIOS instead of their own drivers to access hardware?
Modern versions of Windows (and other modern operating systems I suppose) have their own drivers to access hardware.
But as I have read, in the old days, if CP/M or MS-DOS wanted to access hardware, ...
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How can I edit CMOS hard drive geometry settings on a 1991 PC?
First, I am NOT asking how to use the BIOS Setup utility. I'm asking how to OVERRIDE the built-in settings my BIOS Setup supports for the HD geometry.
I have a 1991 NCR PC with a 386SX, on-board IDE, ...
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Why did IBM make the PC BIOS source code public?
IBM released the IBM 5150 Technical Reference manual in August, 1981, and included in it the fully commented source code listing for the BIOS. I find this odd for two reasons:
IBM must have realized ...
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Which is the minimum set of interrupts/functions I should implement in a replacement BIOS for a home made IBM PC class computer?
I'm at the early stages of implementing a home-made IBM PC class computer (maybe AT class, I don't know yet). The CPU will be an actual 8088 chip, but everything else (except memory) will be ...
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Did the IBM PC use the 8088's NMI line?
As I understand it, the Intel 8088 CPU used in the original IBM PC had two interrupt lines: INTR and NMI. INTR was fed from the Intel 8259 Programmable Interrupt Controller, which handled the IRQs ...
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How did Drive Overlay programs break BIOS disk barriers on older PCs?
I was just reading a thread on Vogons about OnTrack and EZ-Drive setup, and it occurred to me that I have no idea how they work.
Please explain why the barrier existed and then how the overlay ...
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Who were the first engineers to "cleanroom" the IBM PC BIOS?
In the first season of the AMC show Halt & Catch Fire, the protagonist "Cameron Howe" is introduced.
Cameron portrays a rookie engineer who is recruited for being extraordinarily talented, and is ...
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Was there ever a Linux kernel driver for accessing disks via BIOS?
If there is some piece of PC compatible hardware where there are no (publicly) existing drivers for Linux, the only option is to access the disk with BIOS calls. I'm aware that this imposes ...
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How did DOS know where to load itself in upper memory?
If I remember correctly, you could ask DOS to load in upper memory by writing something like...
DOS=UMB
...somewhere in the CONFIG.SYS file.
But the question is, how did DOS know what portions of ...
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Why did the BIOS load the MBR at 0x7c00?
The IVT is at 0x0000-0x03ff while the BDA is at 0x0400-0x04ff but boot sectors are loaded at 0x7c00. What was at 0x0500-0x7bff that caused this convention? I'm also curious why some MBRs relocate ...
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