American Megatrends Atlas PCI-II, User Manual

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Chapter 2 WINBIOS Setup 39
2 WINBIOS Setup
In ISA and EISA computers, the system parameters
(such as amount of memory, type of disk drives and
video displays, and many other elements) are stored
in CMOS RAM. Unlike the DRAM (dynamic
random access memory) that is used for standard
system memory, CMOS RAM requires very little
power. When the computer is turned off, a back-up
battery provides power to CMOS RAM, which
retains the system parameters. Every time the
computer is powered-on, the computer is configured
with the values stored in CMOS RAM by the
system BIOS, which gains control when the
computer is powered on.
The system parameters are configured by a system
BIOS Setup utility. Historically, BIOS Setup utilities
have been character-based, required keyboard
input, and have had user interfaces that were not
very intuitive.
New BIOS Setup American Megatrends has a new type of system
BIOS Setup utility. WINBIOS Setup has a graphical
user interface the end user can access using a
mouse. The WINBIOS Setup code is so compact
that it can reside on the same ROM as the system
BIOS. The system configuration parameters are set
by WINBIOS Setup.
Since WINBIOS Setup resides in the ROM BIOS, it
is available each time the computer is turned on.
Starting WINBIOS Setup As POST executes, the following appears:
Hit <DEL> if you want to run SETUP
Press <Del> to run WINBIOS Setup.