Bios

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apply512

New Member
hi i would like to know more about BIOS ... what is BIOS and what does it do? why is it called Basic input output system?
 
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The BIOS is what lets you control the CMOS. Basically it is there so you can configure your hardware - and that's it.
 
BIOS is a small program that makes your PC work when you turn it on.

The BIOS is what lets you control the CMOS. Basically it is there so you can configure your hardware - and that's it.
Click to expand...

CMOS is really just a read/write area where the BIOS can store data. The BIOS-setup program (this is not what make your computer work) is where you can make some configuration changes.
 
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I READ THAT BIOS has some basic device drivers in it , for example the keyboard, hard disk, floppy disk ... and when a computer is booting up it reads the BIOS-ses of plug in cards . And in those bioses there are device drivers for those devices and they become a part of the general BIOS, and then BIOS create API (APLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACE). And thanks to API the OS can work with the hardware because of the device drivers in the API is it true?
 
Yes, the bios makes functions available to the outside world which can be used to control various devices, but all modern OSes talks to the hardware directly and need their own drivers.

If you boot on a win98 startdisk and run fdisk then all drive access is done through a bios call.
 
could you give me a example ... in case of an older OS, when for example something has to be written on the hard disk, some file ... what happens ? At the start the OS gives an order to write the file and then what happens? and what is the purpose of the BIOS in this process and which hardware must do something so that at the end the file is written on the harddisk? Could you write me in steps what is needed to do .
 
When you talk about files then you talk about file system logic. BIOS has none of that. All that kind of logic lies in the OS.

The only thing you can do is tell the bios which sectors you want to read/write. By calling the bios you can access the harddrive without knowing how to talk to the harddrive controller.
 
hmm .. so you actually say that bios is later not needed in the new OS? i mean it is very important for booting and so long but when the OS is run, his own devices drivers are loaded and the os can directly comunicate with hardware devices? the BIOS has no purpose later?
 
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