B&R Industries Provit 5000, User Manual

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Provit 5000 User’s Manual 247
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Software • BIOS General Information
Chapter 6 • Software
1. BIOS General Information
BIOS is an abbreviation for "Basic Input and Output System". It is the most basic standardized
connection between the user and the system (hardware). EliteBIOS from Award Software is
used on Provit 5000 and Provit 5600 IPC's.
The BIOS Setup Utility lets you modify basic system configuration settings. These settings are
stored in CMOS RAM and in FPROM (as a backup).
The CMOS RAM is a nonvolatile battery backed memory which retains information when the
power is turned off on the IPC.
The EliteBIOS used is a customized version of an industry-standard BIOS for IBM PC AT-
compatible personal computers. It supports Intel x86 and compatible processors. The BIOS
provides critical low-level support for the central processing unit, memory and I/O subsystems.
It has been customized by B&R through the addition of important, but non standard, features
such as virus and password protection, power management, and detailed fine-tuning of the
chipset controlling the system.
1.1 BIOS Setup
The EliteBIOS is immediately activated when you switch on the power supply of the IPC.
The BIOS reads system configuration information in CMOS RAM, compares it with the CMOS
backup in FPROM and begins the process of checking the system and configuring it through the
power-on self test (POST).
When these "preliminaries" are finished, the BIOS seeks an operating system in the data storage
devices available (hard drive, floppy drive, etc.). The BIOS launches the operating system and
hands over control of system operations to it.
To enter Setup, press the DEL key when this message appears briefly at the bottom of the
screen (during POST):
Press DEL to enter SETUP
If the message disappears before you press DEL and you still wish to enter Setup, you must
reboot the system.