BIOS interrupt call

Last updated

BIOS implementations provide interrupts that can be invoked by operating systems and application programs to use the facilities of the firmware on IBM PC compatible [lower-alpha 1] computers. Traditionally, BIOS calls are mainly used by DOS programs and some other software such as boot loaders (including, mostly historically, relatively simple application software that boots directly and runs without an operating systemespecially game software). BIOS runs in the real address mode (Real Mode) of the x86 CPU, so programs that call BIOS either must also run in real mode or must switch from protected mode to real mode before calling BIOS and then switching back again. For this reason, modern operating systems that use the CPU in Protected mode or Long mode generally do not use the BIOS interrupt calls to support system functions, although they use the BIOS interrupt calls to probe and initialize hardware during booting. [1] Real mode has the 1MB memory limitation, modern boot loaders (e.g. GRUB2, Windows Boot Manager) use the unreal mode or protected mode (and execute the BIOS interrupt calls in the Virtual 8086 mode, but only for OS booting) to access up to 4GB memory. [2]

Contents

In all computers, software instructions control the physical hardware (screen, disk, keyboard, etc.) from the moment the power is switched on. In a PC, the BIOS, pre-loaded in ROM on the motherboard, takes control immediately after the CPU is reset, including during power-up, when a hardware reset button is pressed, or when a critical software failure (a triple fault) causes the mainboard circuitry to automatically trigger a hardware reset. The BIOS tests the hardware and initializes its state; finds, loads, and runs the boot program (usually, an OS boot loader, and historical ROM BASIC); and provides basic hardware control to the software running on the machine, which is usually an operating system (with application programs) but may be a directly booting single software application.

For IBM's part, they provided all the information needed to use their BIOS fully or to directly utilize the hardware and avoid BIOS completely, when programming the early IBM PC models (prior to the PS/2). From the beginning, programmers had the choice of using BIOS or not, on a per-hardware-peripheral basis. IBM did strongly encourage the authorship of "well-behaved" programs that accessed hardware only through BIOS INT calls (and DOS service calls), to support compatibility of software with current and future PC models having dissimilar peripheral hardware, but IBM understood that for some software developers and hardware customers, a capability for user software to directly control the hardware was a requirement. In part, this was because a significant subset of all the hardware features and functions was not exposed by the BIOS services. For two examples (among many), the MDA and CGA adapters are capable of hardware scrolling, and the PC serial adapter is capable of interrupt-driven data transfer, but the IBM BIOS supports neither of these useful technical features.

Today, the BIOS in a new PC still supports most, if not all, of the BIOS interrupt function calls defined by IBM for the IBM AT (introduced in 1984), along with many more newer ones, plus extensions to some of the originals (e.g. expanded parameter ranges) promulgated by various other organizations and collaborative industry groups. This, combined with a similar degree of hardware compatibility, means that most programs written for an IBM AT can still run correctly on a new PC today, assuming that the faster speed of execution is acceptable (which it typically is for all but games that use CPU-based timing). Despite the considerable limitations of the services accessed through the BIOS interrupts, they have proven extremely useful and durable to technological change.

Purpose of BIOS calls

BIOS interrupt calls perform hardware control or I/O functions requested by a program, return system information to the program, or do both. A key element of the purpose of BIOS calls is abstraction - the BIOS calls perform generally defined functions, and the specific details of how those functions are executed on the particular hardware of the system are encapsulated in the BIOS and hidden from the program. So, for example, a program that wants to read from a hard disk does not need to know whether the hard disk is an ATA, SCSI, or SATA drive (or in earlier days, an ESDI drive, or an MFM or RLL drive with perhaps a Seagate ST-506 controller, perhaps one of the several Western Digital controller types, or with a different proprietary controller of another brand). The program only needs to identify the BIOS-defined number of the drive it wishes to access and the address of the sector it needs to read or write, and the BIOS will take care of translating this general request into the specific sequence of elementary operations required to complete the task through the particular disk controller hardware that is connected to that drive. The program is freed from needing to know how to control at a low level every type of hard disk (or display adapter, or port interface, or real-time clock peripheral) that it may need to access. This both makes programming operating systems and applications easier and makes the programs smaller, reducing the duplication of program code, as the functionality that is included in the BIOS does not need to be included in every program that needs it; relatively short calls to the BIOS are included in the programs instead. (In operating systems where the BIOS is not used, service calls provided by the operating system itself generally fulfill the same function and purpose.)

The BIOS also frees computer hardware designers (to the extent that programs are written to use the BIOS exclusively) from being constrained to maintain exact hardware compatibility with old systems when designing new systems, in order to maintain compatibility with existing software. For example, the keyboard hardware on the IBM PCjr works very differently than the keyboard hardware on earlier IBM PC models, but to programs that use the keyboard only through the BIOS, this difference is nearly invisible. (As a good example of the other side of this issue, a significant share of the PC programs in use at the time the PCjr was introduced did not use the keyboard through BIOS exclusively, so IBM also included hardware features in the PCjr to emulate the way the original IBM PC and IBM PC XT keyboard hardware works. The hardware emulation is not exact, so not all programs that try to use the keyboard hardware directly will work correctly on the PCjr, but all programs that use only the BIOS keyboard services will.)

In addition to giving access to hardware facilities, BIOS provides added facilities that are implemented in the BIOS software. For example, the BIOS maintains separate cursor positions for up to eight text display pages and provides for TTY-like output with automatic line wrap and interpretation of basic control characters such as carriage return and line feed, whereas the CGA-compatible text display hardware has only one global display cursor and cannot automatically advance the cursor, use the cursor position to address the display memory (so as to determine which character cell will be changed or examined), or interpret control characters. For another example, the BIOS keyboard interface interprets many keystrokes and key combinations to keep track of the various shift states (left and right Shift, Ctrl, and Alt), to call the print-screen service when Shift+PrtScrn is pressed, to reboot the system when Ctrl+Alt+Del is pressed, to keep track of the lock states (Caps Lock, Num Lock, and Scroll Lock) and, in AT-class machines, control the corresponding lock-state indicator lights on the keyboard, and to perform other similar interpretive and management functions for the keyboard. In contrast, the ordinary capabilities of the standard PC and PC-AT keyboard hardware are limited to reporting to the system each primitive event of an individual key being pressed or released (i.e. making a transition from the "released" state to the "depressed" state or vice versa), performing a commanded reset and self-test of the keyboard unit, and, for AT-class keyboards, executing a command from the host system to set the absolute states of the lock-state indicators (LEDs).

Calling BIOS: BIOS software interrupts

Operating systems and other software communicate with the BIOS software, in order to control the installed hardware, via software interrupts. A software interrupt is a specific variety of the general concept of an interrupt. An interrupt is a mechanism by which the CPU can be directed to stop executing the main-line program and immediately execute a special program, called an Interrupt Service Routine (ISR), instead. Once the ISR finishes, the CPU continues with the main program. On x86 CPUs, when an interrupt occurs, the ISR to call is found by looking it up in a table of ISR starting-point addresses (called "interrupt vectors") in memory: the Interrupt vector table (IVT). An interrupt is invoked by its type number, from 0 to 255, and the type number is used as an index into the Interrupt Vector Table, and at that index in the table is found the address of the ISR that will be run in response to the interrupt. A software interrupt is simply an interrupt that is triggered by a software command; therefore, software interrupts function like subroutines, with the main difference that the program that makes a software interrupt call does not need to know the address of the ISR, only its interrupt number. This has advantages for modularity, compatibility, and flexibility in system configuration.

BIOS interrupt calls can be thought of as a mechanism for passing messages between BIOS and BIOS client software such as an operating system. The messages request data or action from BIOS and return the requested data, status information, and/or the product of the requested action to the caller. The messages are broken into categories, each with its own interrupt number, and most categories contain sub-categories, called "functions" and identified by "function numbers". A BIOS client passes most information to BIOS in CPU registers, and receives most information back the same way, but data too large to fit in registers, such as tables of control parameters or disk sector data for disk transfers, is passed by allocating a buffer (i.e. some space) in memory and passing the address of the buffer in registers. (Sometimes multiple addresses of data items in memory may be passed in a data structure in memory, with the address of that structure passed to BIOS in registers.) The interrupt number is specified as the parameter of the software interrupt instruction (in Intel assembly language, an "INT" instruction), and the function number is specified in the AH register; that is, the caller sets the AH register to the number of the desired function. In general, the BIOS services corresponding to each interrupt number operate independently of each other, but the functions within one interrupt service are handled by the same BIOS program and are not independent. (This last point is relevant to reentrancy.)

The BIOS software usually returns to the caller with an error code if not successful, or with a status code and/or requested data if successful. The data itself can be as small as one bit or as large as 65,536 bytes of whole raw disk sectors (the maximum that will fit into one real-mode memory segment). BIOS has been expanded and enhanced over the years many times by many different corporate entities, and unfortunately the result of this evolution is that not all the BIOS functions that can be called use consistent conventions for formatting and communicating data or for reporting results. Some BIOS functions report detailed status information, while others may not even report success or failure but just return silently, leaving the caller to assume success (or to test the outcome some other way). Sometimes it can also be difficult to determine whether or not a certain BIOS function call is supported by the BIOS on a certain computer, or what the limits of a call's parameters are on that computer. (For some invalid function numbers, or valid function numbers with invalid values of key parametersparticularly with an early IBM BIOS versionthe BIOS may do nothing and return with no error code; then it is the [inconvenient but inevitable] responsibility of the caller either to avoid this case by not making such calls, or to positively test for an expected effect of the call rather than assuming that the call was effective. Because BIOS has evolved extensively in many steps over its history, a function that is valid in one BIOS version from some certain vendor may not be valid in an earlier or divergent BIOS version from the same vendor or in a BIOS versionof any relative agefrom a different vendor.)

Because BIOS interrupt calls use CPU register-based parameter passing, the calls are oriented to being made from assembly language and cannot be directly made from most high-level languages (HLLs). However, a high level language may provide a library of wrapper routines which translate parameters from the form (usually stack-based) used by the high-level language to the register-based form required by BIOS, then back to the HLL calling convention after the BIOS returns. In some variants of C, BIOS calls can be made using inline assembly language within a C module. (Support for inline assembly language is not part of the ANSI C standard but is a language extension; therefore, C modules that use inline assembly language are less portable than pure ANSI standard C modules.)

Invoking an interrupt

Invoking an interrupt can be done using the INT x86 assembly language instruction. For example, to print a character to the screen using BIOS interrupt 0x10, the following x86 assembly language instructions could be executed:

movah,0x0e; function number = 0Eh : Display Charactermoval,'!'; AL = code of character to displayint0x10; call INT 10h, BIOS video service

Interrupt table

A list of common BIOS interrupt classes can be found below. Some BIOSes (particularly old ones) do not implement all of these interrupt classes.

The BIOS also uses some interrupts to relay hardware event interrupts to programs which choose to receive them or to route messages for its own use.

Interrupt vectorDescription
05hExecuted when Shift-Print screen is pressed, as well as when the BOUND instruction detects a bound failure.
08hThis is the real time clock interrupt. It fires 18.2 times/second. The BIOS increments the time-of-day counter during this interrupt.
09hThis is the Keyboard interrupt. This is generally triggered when a key on a keyboard is pressed.
10h Video Services
AHDescription
00hSet Video Mode
01hSet Cursor Shape
02hSet Cursor Position
03hGet Cursor Position And Shape
04hGet Light Pen Position
05hSet Display Page
06hClear/Scroll Screen Up
07hClear/Scroll Screen Down
08hRead Character and Attribute at Cursor
09hWrite Character and Attribute at Cursor
0AhWrite Character at Cursor
0BhSet Border Color
0ChWrite Graphics Pixel
0DhRead Graphics Pixel
0EhWrite Character in TTY Mode
0FhGet Video Mode
10hSet Palette Registers (EGA, VGA, SVGA)
11hCharacter Generator (EGA, VGA, SVGA)
12hAlternate Select Functions (EGA, VGA, SVGA)
13hWrite String
1AhGet or Set Display Combination Code (VGA, SVGA)
1BhGet Functionality Information (VGA, SVGA)
1ChSave or Restore Video State (VGA, SVGA)
4Fh VESA BIOS Extension Functions (SVGA)
11hReturns equipment list
12hReturn conventional memory size
13h Low Level Disk Services
AHDescription
00hReset Disk Drives
01hCheck Drive Status
02hRead Sectors
03hWrite Sectors
04hVerify Sectors
05hFormat Track
08hGet Drive Parameters
09hInit Fixed Drive Parameters
0ChSeek To Specified Track
0DhReset Fixed Disk Controller
15hGet Drive Type
16hGet Floppy Drive Media Change Status
17hSet Disk Type
18hSet Floppy Drive Media Type
41hExtended Disk Drive (EDD) Installation Check
42hExtended Read Sectors
43hExtended Write Sectors
44hExtended Verify Sectors
45hLock/Unlock Drive
46hEject Media
47hExtended Seek
48hExtended Get Drive Parameters
49hExtended Get Media Change Status
4EhExtended Set Hardware Configuration
14hSerial port services
AHDescription
00hSerial Port Initialization
01hTransmit Character
02hReceive Character
03hStatus
15hMiscellaneous system services
AHALDescription
00hTurn on cassette drive motor (IBM PC/PCjr only)
01hTurn off cassette drive motor (IBM PC/PCjr only)
02hRead data blocks from cassette (IBM PC/PCjr only)
03hWrite data blocks to cassette (IBM PC/PCjr only)
4FhKeyboard Intercept
83hEvent Wait
84hRead Joystick (BIOSes from 1986 onward)
85hSysreq Key Callout
86hWait
87hMove Block
88hGet Extended Memory Size
89hSwitch to Protected Mode
C0hGet System Parameters
C1hGet Extended BIOS Data Area Segment
C2hPointing Device Functions
C3hWatchdog Timer Functions - PS/2 systems only
C4hProgrammable Option Select - MCA bus PS/2 systems only
D8h EISA System Functions - EISA bus systems only
E8h01hGet Extended Memory Size (Newer function, since 1994). Gives results for memory size above 64 Mb.
E8h20hQuery System Address Map. The information returned from E820 supersedes what is returned from the older AX=E801h and AH=88h interfaces.
16h Keyboard services
AHDescription
00hRead Character
01hRead Input Status
02hRead Keyboard Shift Status
05hStore Keystroke in Keyboard Buffer
10hRead Character Extended
11hRead Input Status Extended
12hRead Keyboard Shift Status Extended
17hPrinter services
AHDescription
00hPrint Character to Printer
01hInitialize Printer
02hCheck Printer Status
18hExecute Cassette BASIC: On IBM machines up to the early PS/2 line, this interrupt would start the ROM Cassette BASIC. Clones did not have this feature and different machines/BIOSes would perform a variety of different actions if INT 18h was executed, most commonly an error message stating that no bootable disk was present. Modern machines would attempt to boot from a network through this interrupt. On modern machines this interrupt will be treated by the BIOS as a signal from the bootloader that it failed to complete its task. The BIOS can then take appropriate next steps. [3]
19hAfter POST this interrupt is used by the BIOS to load the operating system. A program can call this interrupt to reboot the computer (but must ensure that hardware interrupts or DMA operations will not cause the system to hang or crash during either the reinitialization of the system by BIOS or the boot process).
1Ah Real-time clock (RTC) Services
AHDescription
00hRead RTC
01hSet RTC
02hRead RTC Time
03hSet RTC Time
04hRead RTC Date
05hSet RTC Date
06hSet RTC Alarm
07hReset RTC Alarm
1Ah PCI Services - implemented by BIOSes supporting PCI 2.0 or later
AXDescription
B101hPCI Installation Check
B102hFind PCI Device
B103hFind PCI Class Code
B106hPCI Bus-Specific Operations
B108hRead Configuration Byte
B109hRead Configuration Word
B10AhRead Configuration Dword
B10BhWrite Configuration Byte
B10ChWrite Configuration Word
B10DhWrite Configuration Dword
B10EhGet IRQ Routine Information
B10FhSet PCI IRQ
1BhCtrl-Break handler - called by INT 09 when Ctrl-Break has been pressed
1ChTimer tick handler - called by INT 08
1DhNot to be called; simply a pointer to the VPT (Video Parameter Table), which contains data on video modes
1EhNot to be called; simply a pointer to the DPT (Diskette Parameter Table), containing a variety of information concerning the diskette drives
1FhNot to be called; simply a pointer to the VGCT (Video Graphics Character Table), which contains the data for ASCII characters 80h to FFh
41hAddress pointer: FDPT = Fixed Disk Parameter Table (1st hard drive)
46hAddress pointer: FDPT = Fixed Disk Parameter Table (2nd hard drive)
4AhCalled by real-time clock for alarm

INT 18h: execute BASIC

INT 18h traditionally jumped to an implementation of Cassette BASIC (provided by Microsoft) stored in Option ROMs. This call would typically be invoked if the BIOS was unable to identify any bootable disk volumes on startup.

At the time the original IBM PC (IBM machine type 5150) was released in 1981, the BASIC in ROM was a key feature. Contemporary popular personal computers such as the Commodore 64 and the Apple II line also had Microsoft Cassette BASIC in ROM (though Commodore renamed their licensed version Commodore BASIC), so in a substantial portion of its intended market, the IBM PC needed BASIC to compete. As on those other systems, the IBM PC's ROM BASIC served as a primitive diskless operating system, allowing the user to load, save, and run programs, as well as to write and refine them. (The original IBM PC was also the only PC model from IBM that, like its aforementioned two competitors, included cassette interface hardware. A base model IBM PC had only 16 KiB of RAM and no disk drives of any kind, so the cassette interface and BASIC in ROM were essential to make the base model usable. An IBM PC with less than 32 KiB of RAM is incapable of booting from disk. Of the five 8 KiB ROM chips in an original IBM PC, totaling 40 KiB, four contain BASIC and only one contains the BIOS; when only 16 KiB of RAM are installed, the ROM BASIC accounts for 4/7ths of the total system memory.)

As time went on and BASIC was no longer shipped on all PCs, this interrupt would simply display an error message indicating that no bootable volume was found (such as "No ROM BASIC", or more explanatory messages in later BIOS versions); in other BIOS versions it would prompt the user to insert a bootable volume and press a key, and then after the user pressed a key it would loop back to the bootstrap loader (INT 19h) to try booting again.

Digital's Rainbow 100B used INT 18h to call its BIOS, which was incompatible with the IBM BIOS. Turbo Pascal, Turbo C and Turbo C++ repurposed INT 18 for memory allocation and paging. Other programs also reused this vector for their own purposes.

BIOS hooks

DOS

On DOS systems, IO.SYS or IBMBIO.COM hooks INT 13 for floppy disk change detection, tracking formatting calls, correcting DMA boundary errors, and working around problems in IBM's ROM BIOS "01/10/84" with model code 0xFC before the first call.

Bypassing BIOS

Many modern operating systems (such as Linux and Windows) do not use any BIOS interrupt calls at all after startup, instead choosing to directly interface with the hardware. To do this, they rely upon drivers that are either a part of the OS kernel itself, ship along with the OS, or are provided by hardware vendors.

There are several reasons for this practice. Most significant is that modern operating systems run with the processor in protected (or long) mode, whereas the BIOS code will only execute in real mode. This means that if an OS running in protected mode wanted to make a BIOS call, it would have to first switch into real mode, then execute the call and wait for it to return, and finally switch back to protected mode. This would be terribly slow and inefficient. Code that runs in real mode (including the BIOS) is limited to accessing just over 1 MiB of memory, due to using 16-bit segmented memory addressing. Additionally, the BIOS is generally not the fastest way to carry out any particular task. In fact, the speed limitations of the BIOS made it common even in the DOS era for programs to circumvent it in order to avoid its performance limitations, especially for video graphics display and fast serial communication.

Beyond the above factors, problems with BIOS functionality include limitations in the range of functions defined, inconsistency in the subsets of those functions supported on different computers, and variations in the quality of BIOSes (i.e. some BIOSes are complete and reliable, others are abridged and buggy). By taking matters into their own hands and avoiding reliance on BIOS, operating system developers can eliminate some of the risks and complications they face in writing and supporting system software. On the other hand, by doing so those developers become responsible for providing "bare-metal" driver software for every different system or peripheral device they intend for their operating system to work with (or for inducing the hardware producers to provide those drivers).

Thus it should be apparent that compact operating systems developed on small budgets would tend to use BIOS heavily, while large operating systems built by huge groups of software engineers with large budgets would more often opt to write their own drivers instead of using BIOSthat is, even without considering the compatibility problems of BIOS and protected mode.

See also

Notes

  1. Not all computers with BIOS are IBM PC compatible

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BIOS</span> Firmware for hardware initialization and OS runtime services

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interrupt</span> Signal to a computer processor emitted by hardware or software

In digital computers, an interrupt is a request for the processor to interrupt currently executing code, so that the event can be processed in a timely manner. If the request is accepted, the processor will suspend its current activities, save its state, and execute a function called an interrupt handler to deal with the event. This interruption is often temporary, allowing the software to resume normal activities after the interrupt handler finishes, although the interrupt could instead indicate a fatal error.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motherboard</span> Main printed circuit board (PCB) used for a computing device

A motherboard is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in general-purpose computers and other expandable systems. It holds and allows communication between many of the crucial electronic components of a system, such as the central processing unit (CPU) and memory, and provides connectors for other peripherals. Unlike a backplane, a motherboard usually contains significant sub-systems, such as the central processor, the chipset's input/output and memory controllers, interface connectors, and other components integrated for general use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Booting</span> Process of starting a computer

In computing, booting is the process of starting a computer as initiated via hardware such as a button on the computer or by a software command. After it is switched on, a computer's central processing unit (CPU) has no software in its main memory, so some process must load software into memory before it can be executed. This may be done by hardware or firmware in the CPU, or by a separate processor in the computer system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM PC–compatible</span> Computers similar to the IBM PC and its derivatives

IBM PC–compatible computers are technically similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT, all from computer giant IBM, that are able to use the same software and expansion cards. Such computers were referred to as PC clones, IBM clones or IBM PC clones. The term "IBM PC compatible" is now a historical description only, since IBM no longer sells personal computers after it sold its personal computer division in 2005 to Chinese technology company Lenovo. The designation "PC", as used in much of personal computer history, has not meant "personal computer" generally, but rather an x86 computer capable of running the same software that a contemporary IBM PC could. The term was initially in contrast to the variety of home computer systems available in the early 1980s, such as the Apple II, TRS-80, and Commodore 64. Later, the term was primarily used in contrast to Apple's Macintosh computers.

A terminate-and-stay-resident program is a computer program running under DOS that uses a system call to return control to DOS as though it has finished, but remains in computer memory so it can be reactivated later. This technique partially overcame DOS's limitation of executing only one program, or task, at a time. TSRs are used only in DOS, not in Windows.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commodore 128</span> Home computer released in 1985

The Commodore 128, also known as the C128, C-128, or C= 128, is the last 8-bit home computer that was commercially released by Commodore Business Machines (CBM). Introduced in January 1985 at the CES in Las Vegas, it appeared three years after its predecessor, the Commodore 64, the bestselling computer of the 1980s. Approximately 2.5 million C128s were sold during its four year production run.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM PCjr</span> Home computer

The IBM PCjr was a home computer produced and marketed by IBM from March 1984 to May 1985, intended as a lower-cost variant of the IBM PC with hardware capabilities better suited for video games, in order to compete more directly with other home computers such as the Apple II and Commodore 64.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DOS memory management</span> Techniques employed to give applications access to more than 640 kibibytes

In IBM PC compatible computing, DOS memory management refers to software and techniques employed to give applications access to more than 640 kibibytes (KiB) of "conventional memory". The 640 KiB limit was specific to the IBM PC and close compatibles; other machines running MS-DOS had different limits, for example the Apricot PC could have up to 768 KiB and the Sirius Victor 9000, 896 KiB. Memory management on the IBM family was made complex by the need to maintain backward compatibility to the original PC design and real-mode DOS, while allowing computer users to take advantage of large amounts of low-cost memory and new generations of processors. Since DOS has given way to Microsoft Windows and other 32-bit operating systems not restricted by the original arbitrary 640 KiB limit of the IBM PC, managing the memory of a personal computer no longer requires the user to manually manipulate internal settings and parameters of the system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conventional memory</span> First 640 KB of RAM under DOS

In DOS memory management, conventional memory, also called base memory, is the first 640 kilobytes of the memory on IBM PC or compatible systems. It is the read-write memory directly addressable by the processor for use by the operating system and application programs. As memory prices rapidly declined, this design decision became a limitation in the use of large memory capacities until the introduction of operating systems and processors that made it irrelevant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Compaq Portable</span> Early portable computer

The Compaq Portable is an early portable computer which was one of the first IBM PC compatible systems. It was Compaq Computer Corporation's first product, to be followed by others in the Compaq Portable series and later Compaq Deskpro series. It was not simply an 8088-CPU computer that ran a Microsoft DOS as a PC "work-alike", but contained a reverse-engineered BIOS, and a version of MS-DOS that was so similar to IBM's PC DOS that it ran nearly all its application software. The computer was also an early variation on the idea of an "all-in-one".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Power-on self-test</span> Process performed by firmware or software routines

A power-on self-test (POST) is a process performed by firmware or software routines immediately after a computer or other digital electronic device is powered on.

An Option ROM for the PC platform is a piece of firmware that resides in ROM on an expansion card, which gets executed to initialize the device and (optionally) add support for the device to the BIOS. In its usual use, it is essentially a driver that interfaces between the BIOS API and hardware. Technically, an option ROM is firmware that is executed by the BIOS after POST and before the BIOS boot process, gaining complete control of the system and being generally unrestricted in what it can do. The BIOS relies on each option ROM to return control to the BIOS so that it can either call the next option ROM or commence the boot process. For this reason, it is possible for an option ROM to keep control and preempt the BIOS boot process. The BIOS generally scans for and initializes option ROMs in ascending address order at 2 KB address intervals within two different address ranges above address C0000h in the conventional (20-bit) memory address space; later systems may also scan additional address ranges in the 24-bit or 32-bit extended address space.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rainbow 100</span> DEC microcomputer

The Rainbow 100 is a microcomputer introduced by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1982. This desktop unit had a monitor similar to the VT220 and a dual-CPU box with both 4 MHz Zilog Z80 and 4.81 MHz Intel 8088 CPUs. The Rainbow 100 was a triple-use machine: VT100 mode, 8-bit CP/M mode, and CP/M-86 or MS-DOS mode using the 8088. It ultimately failed to in the marketplace which became dominated by the simpler IBM PC and its clones which established the industry standard as compatibility with CP/M became less important than IBM PC compatibility. Writer David Ahl called it a disastrous foray into the personal computer market. The Rainbow was launched along with the similarly packaged DEC Professional and DECmate II which were also not successful. The failure of DEC to gain a significant foothold in the high-volume PC market would be the beginning of the end of the computer hardware industry in New England, as nearly all computer companies located there were focused on minicomputers for large organizations, from DEC to Data General, Wang, Prime, Computervision, Honeywell, and Symbolics Inc.

INT 13h is shorthand for BIOS interrupt call 13hex, the 20th interrupt vector in an x86-based computer system. The BIOS typically sets up a real mode interrupt handler at this vector that provides sector-based hard disk and floppy disk read and write services using cylinder-head-sector (CHS) addressing. Modern PC BIOSes also include INT 13h extension functions, originated by IBM and Microsoft in 1992, that provide those same disk access services using 64-bit LBA addressing; with minor additions, these were quasi-standardized by Phoenix Technologies and others as the EDD BIOS extensions.

A volume boot record (VBR) is a type of boot sector introduced by the IBM Personal Computer. It may be found on a partitioned data storage device, such as a hard disk, or an unpartitioned device, such as a floppy disk, and contains machine code for bootstrapping programs stored in other parts of the device. On non-partitioned storage devices, it is the first sector of the device. On partitioned devices, it is the first sector of an individual partition on the device, with the first sector of the entire device being a Master Boot Record (MBR) containing the partition table.

The original IBM Personal Computer and IBM PCjr included support for storing data and programs on compact cassette tape.

The IBM Personal Computer Basic, commonly shortened to IBM BASIC, is a programming language first released by IBM with the IBM Personal Computer, Model 5150 in 1981. IBM released four different versions of the Microsoft BASIC interpreter, licensed from Microsoft for the PC and PCjr. They are known as Cassette BASIC, Disk BASIC, Advanced BASIC (BASICA), and Cartridge BASIC. Versions of Disk BASIC and Advanced BASIC were included with IBM PC DOS up to PC DOS 4. In addition to the features of an ANSI standard BASIC, the IBM versions offered support for the graphics and sound hardware of the IBM PC line. Source code could be entered with a full-screen editor, and limited facilities were provided for rudimentary program debugging. IBM also released a version of the Microsoft BASIC compiler for the PC concurrently with the release of PC DOS 1.10 in 1982.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tandy Graphics Adapter</span> Computer display standard for the Tandy 1000 series

Tandy Graphics Adapter is a computer display standard for the Tandy 1000 series of IBM PC compatibles, which has compatibility with the video subsystem of the IBM PCjr but became a standard in its own right.

References

  1. "Booting · Linux Inside". 0xax.gitbooks.io. Retrieved 2020-11-10.
  2. "Grub2 Booting Process". 21 June 2016.