Type | Public |
---|---|
Industry | Computer hardware & software |
Founded | 1983 (San Jose, California) |
Founders | Rene Vishney Bob Stillman |
Defunct | 28 September 1998 |
Fate | Merged with Phoenix Technologies |
Headquarters | Los Gatos, California |
Products | BIOS software Semiconductors Data management tools |
Website | www.award.com |
Award Software International Inc. was a BIOS manufacturer founded in 1983 [1] by Rene Vishney and Bob Stillman in San Jose, California. In 1984, the company moved its international headquarters to Los Gatos, California, United States. [2] [3]
In 1988, Bob Stillman left the company. The company was held privately by Rene Vishney (chairman of the board) and his wife, Deborah Lee (Marlow) Vishney (Chief Executive Officer).
In 1993, it was sold to Taiwan company GCH Systems Ltd. (now defunct). [4]
On 24 October 1996, Award Software International Inc. announced its initial public offering. [5]
On 16 June 1997, Award Software International Inc. announced the acquisition of BIOS upgrades provider Unicore Software, Inc. [6] making it a subsidiary of Award. [7]
On 16 April 1998, Phoenix Technologies Ltd. and Award Software International Inc. announced the completion of a definitive merger agreement where Phoenix Technologies Ltd. would become the surviving corporate entity following the merger completion on 30 June 1998. [8] The merger was completed on 28 September 1998. [9]
After the Phoenix–Award merger, later revisions of Award BIOS still attribute copyright to Award Software Inc. instead of Phoenix Technologies Ltd., including the UEFI firmware. [10]
In computing, BIOS is firmware used to provide runtime services for operating systems and programs and to perform hardware initialization during the booting process. The BIOS firmware comes pre-installed on an IBM PC or IBM PC compatible's system board and exists in some UEFI-based systems to maintain compatibility with operating systems that do not support UEFI native operation. The name originates from the Basic Input/Output System used in the CP/M operating system in 1975. The BIOS originally proprietary to the IBM PC has been reverse engineered by some companies looking to create compatible systems. The interface of that original system serves as a de facto standard.
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