What is BIOS?

BIOS | welcome2protec

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What is BIOS?

BIOS stands for Basic Input/output System, the BIOS (pronounced bye-oss) is a ROM chip or a programmable chip located on all motherboards that is responsible for booting up your system.

The BIOS includes instructions on how to load basic computer hardware and includes a test referred to as a POST (Power On Self-Test) that helps verify the computer meets requirements to boot up properly. If the computer does not pass the POST, you will receive a combination of beeps indicating what is malfunctioning within the computer.

There are four main functions of BIOS:

1. POST - The most important function of the BIOS is to make sure every hardware in the system is functioning properly or not before starting process of loading Operating System.
   👉 It enumerates the RAM by checking each compartment to see if all of them are working.
   👉 After checking out RAM and Processor, it checks for other devices attached to the computer.
   👉 It detects all the peripherals, including the keyboard and mouse and then checks for the boot options.
   


2. Bootstrap Loader - Process of locating the operating system. If capable Operating system located BIOS will pass the control to it.
   👉 Boot options are checked in the sequence configured in your BIOS: Boot from CD-ROM, Boot From Hard Drive, Boot from LAN, etc.
   👉 It checks for bootstraps on the devices in the order you or the machine vendor configured the BIOS.


3. BIOS - Software / Drivers which interfaces between the operating system and your hardware. When running DOS or Windows you are using complete BIOS support.
4. CMOS Setup - Configuration program. Which allows you to configure hardware settings including system settings such as computer passwords, time, and date.

More on this to be updated soon...

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