BIOS and CMOS

Adding personality to your PC

 We Need to Talk!
• The CPU needs some method to talk to
the devices to tell them what to do
• The devices need some way to send data
to, and receive data from the CPU
• We need to expand our logical model from
the CPU chapter
 Northbridge RAM
CPU
Address Bus

EDB
 Northbridge RAM
CPU
Address Bus

EDB

Southbridge
keyboard

Video Card

Hard Disk Drive

 Chipset

Address Bus

Northbridge RAM
CPU

EDB

Chipset

Southbridge

Keyboard
Controller
Video Card
Hard Disk Drive
845 Chipset
925 Chipset
 Keyboard
• How we communicate with the keyboard
 Problems
• Different motherboards have different
keyboard controllers
• We need specific code to talk to the
controller
• We need a place to store this specific
programming and the programming for
other devices (optical drive, floppy, etc.)
 Solution
• Use a ROM chip
• Does not “forget” when power is removed,
like RAM does
• Specific to motherboard and devices on it
• Read only, code does not change
• Can hold lots of programs, like a “chapter
book”
• Called “firmware”
IBM’s BIOS

BIOS
BIO

Patent “fence” around BIOS

 Making a ROM chip
• We “burn” the code into the chip:

1 0
 System ROM
• Holds all the support programming for
basic devices
• Is given a specific address space, or range
of memory addresses for its code
 The First Megabyte
1 MB
• Upper Memory (384 KB)

640 KB

• Conventional Memory

Address 0
 Basic Hardware
• CPU • Sound Card
• Mouse • Floppy drive
• Keyboard • Hard Disk drive
• Video card • Zip drive
• RAM • USB ports
• Network card • CD-ROM drive
 Basic Hardware
• CPU • Sound Card
• Mouse • Floppy drive
• Keyboard • Hard Disk drive
• Video card • Zip drive
• RAM • USB ports
• Network card • CD-ROM drive
 Stored Information
• Stores access/write code for keyboard
• Stores access/write code for system
speaker
• Stores access/write code for other chips
(functions) on motherboard
• Does not change (more on this in a
moment)
 CMOS
• Complimentary Metal Oxide
Semiconductor – how it was made
• Stores specific information about your
system:
– Amount of RAM present
– Type of hard disk drive
– Date and Time
• Needs battery power to “remember” when
power is off
 Chipset
Address Bus

Northbridge RAM
CPU

EDB

Chipset

Southbridge

BIOS
And
Keyboard CMOS
Controller
Mouse Video Card
20
 BIOS
• All devices need BIOS code to
interoperate with CPU. Some is stored
directly in System BIOS chip, most is
stored elsewhere.
• One of the functions of BIOS is to provide
the CMOS Setup Utility, or Setup, which
allows us to change CMOS data.
 BIOS
information CMOS
information
 CMOS or Setup
• Option to use this program is early in the
boot cycle – long before system loads
Operating System
• Different key(s) to enter different Setups
• You should only get to Setup on purpose
• Program stored in BIOS, but only edits
data in CMOS
• First CMOS was set of switches!
 Who makes BIOS?
• Award Software Same parent
company
• Phoenix Technologies
• AMI – American Megatrends Inc.
• They write BIOS with lots of options;
motherboard maker picks sections to be
used
• Long gone are IBM’s patents on BIOS
 Setup
• Lots of screens and subscreens
• You don’t need to know about all settings
on all screens
• Motherboard book is mildly helpful on
some options
• You should know generally where things
can be found
 Date and Time and …
• Usually on the first screen, or first menu
choice
• Lets you set Date, Time, floppy present
(will autodetect it), memory count, hard
drive(s) present (again, autodetected)
 Here is where
you set the boot
order
 When adding a
modem, you might
want to turn both of
these off.
 Old CMOS
• Stored the hard drive “geometry” which
was NOT found on the drive’s label
• Old systems had a nasty habit of loosing
CMOS data and requiring a trip to the
repair shop to get fixed
• I spent many an hour hacking drive
geometry values by trial and error

15
 New CMOS
• Did you notice the “High Performance”
option?
• Did you see the “Setup Defaults” option?
• BIOS can “talk” to hard disk drive and get
all the information it needs.
• About the worst that happens today is the
need to reset date and time.
 Chip Evolution
• EPROM – Erasable Programmable ROM;
used ultra-violet light (sunlight) to erase
• EEPROM – Electrically Erasable – what
we use today
• Flash ROM – another name for EEPROM
• NVRAM – Non-volatile RAM. Really not
so, still needs battery power
 The Three-In-One
• We have BIOS that stores code and
access program to CMOS
• We have CMOS that stores changeable
information about our system
• We have RTC (Real Time Clock) that
keeps track of date and time
• All three are now rolled into one chip
Easy way to spot
this chip is by the
shinny label
 About that Battery
• Should last 5 to 10 years
• You can find them at Savon even
• If your system forgets date and/or time, it’s
time to replace the battery
• Beware the evil ESD!
 More Battery
• Sometimes we WANT to reset CMOS:
– A forgotten password
– Too aggressive overclocking
– Incorrect low-level settings on some screen
• Either move the jumper, or pull the battery
• Do either for about 10 seconds
• If you are to pull battery, make sure you
unplug system too
10
 More BIOS
• Option ROM – put a BIOS chip on the
card/device
– Video is most common for this
– SCSI cards
– Network cards have socket, chip is extra
 Software Solutions
• Device Drivers – very flexible, but must
wait until OS starts loading.
• CONFIG.SYS – DOS utility program, runs
before DOS really gets going
• SYSTEM.INI – Introduced with Win 1 to 3,
another text file. Win 9x won’t boot without
it; XP will
• The Registry – Introduced with Win 95.
Binary database of information
 Software Help
• Control Panel – Graphical “window” to the
Registry
• Device Manager – Another graphical path
to the Registry
• REGISTRY EDITOR(s):
– REGEDIT
– REGEDT32
 Power On Self Test (POST)
• First thing to run when you start up
computer
• Waits for “power good” signal from power
supply, then starts the CPU
• FFFA is (almost) at the end of 1st meg of
RAM, contains a “Jump Immediate”
instruction to beginning of POST code
• CPU instructs our “short list” items to
check themselves out with own diagnostic
 POST, cont.
• Until video card is done, we are “in the
dark” and could get “Beep Codes” for
errors. Don’t memorize them. Constant
beeping is either memory or video error.
• Once the video card has checked itself
out, we could get error codes/messages
on the monitor as other devices report
status

5
 POST, cont.
• About this time, we get the option to run
CMOS Setup routine
• POST is done; control passes to
“Bootstrap Loader.” It’s job is to find OS.
– Looks for the “Boot Sector” on floppy/hard
disk drive(s)
• A disk with functional OS is called a
“Bootable Disk” or “System Disk.” Could
be floppy (DOS), CD or hard disk drive.
 Boot Order
• Somewhere in CMOS Setup is the ability
to set the boot order, or the order in which
the bootstrap loader will search for an OS.
• I set my systems to: CD/DVD drive, floppy
and then hard disk drive.
• Usually, if a bootable CD is found, you get
the option to boot from it (by pressing any
key). Do nothing and loader continues the
search for an OS.
 POST Cards
• Can be purchased; probably about extinct
now.
• I could have used one about three times in
my career so far.
• If another (known good) video card and/or
memory won’t boot, motherboard is
toasted.
 Flashing the BIOS
• Mess up the process and motherboard is
history
• Won’t allow you to swap 486 for P4 chip
• Most processes require a bootable floppy
with special program and very odd
command line
• Some newer motherboards include Flash
as Setup option.
• I would rather eat a bug
 UEFI
• At least Sandy Bridge processor and
current motherboard.
• 32/64-bit replacement for BIOS
• Allows use of 3 TB+ drives without
partitioning it down
• Good topic for an Internet search some
rainy Saturday