The Extended System Configuration Data (ESCD) is a specification for configuring x86 computers of the ISA PNP era. The specification was developed by Compaq, Intel and Phoenix Technologies. It consists of a method for storing configuration information in nonvolatile BIOS memory and three BIOS functions for working with that data. [1] [2]
The ESCD data may at one time have been stored in the latter portion of the 128 byte extended bank of battery-backed CMOS RAM but eventually it became too large and so was moved to BIOS flash. [3] [4]
It contains information about ISA PnP devices is stored. It is used by the BIOS to allocate resources for devices like expansion cards. The ESCD data is stored using the data serialization format used for EISA. Its data starts with the "ACFG" signature in ASCII. PCI configuration can also be stored in ESCD, using virtual slots. [5] Typical storage usage for ESCD data is 2–4 KB
The BIOS also updates the ESCD each time the hardware configuration changes, after deciding how to re-allocate resources like IRQ and memory mapping ranges. After the ESCD has been updated, the decision need not be made again, which thereafter results in faster startup without conflicts until the next hardware configuration change.
BIOS is firmware used to perform hardware initialization during the booting process, and to provide runtime services for operating systems and programs. The BIOS firmware comes pre-installed on a personal computer's system board, and it is the first software to run when powered on. 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 companies looking to create compatible systems. The interface of that original system serves as a de facto standard.
Alpha, originally known as Alpha AXP, is a 64-bit reduced instruction set computing (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), designed to replace their 32-bit VAX complex instruction set computer (CISC) ISA. Alpha was implemented in microprocessors originally developed and fabricated by DEC. These microprocessors were most prominently used in a variety of DEC workstations and servers, which eventually formed the basis for almost all of their mid-to-upper-scale lineup. Several third-party vendors also produced Alpha systems, including PC form factor motherboards.
The Extended Industry Standard Architecture is a bus standard for IBM PC compatible computers. It was announced in September 1988 by a consortium of PC clone vendors as a counter to IBM's use of its proprietary Micro Channel architecture (MCA) in its PS/2 series.
Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) is the 16-bit internal bus of IBM PC/AT and similar computers based on the Intel 80286 and its immediate successors during the 1980s. The bus was (largely) backward compatible with the 8-bit bus of the 8088-based IBM PC, including the IBM PC/XT as well as IBM PC compatibles.
In computing, endianness is the ordering or sequencing of bytes of a word of digital data in computer memory storage or during transmission. Endianness is primarily expressed as big-endian or little-endian. Big-endian systems store the most significant byte of a word at the smallest memory address and the least significant byte at the largest. A little-endian system, in contrast, stores the least-significant byte at the smallest address.
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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.
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