3-21
BIOS Setup
PNP/PCI Configurations
This section describes configuring the PCI bus system and PnP (Plug & Play)
feature. PCI, or
P
eripheral
C
omponent
I
nterconnect, is a system which allows
I/O devices to operate at speeds nearing the speed the CPU itself uses when
communicating with its special components. This section covers some very
technical items and it is strongly recommended that only experienced users
should make any changes to the default settings.
Plug and Play Aware O/S
When set to
Yes
, BIOS will only initialize the PnP cards used for booting
(VGA, IDE, SCSI). The rest of the cards will be initialized by the PnP operating
system like Windows
®
98, 2000 or ME. When set to
No
, BIOS will initialize
all the PnP cards. Select
Yes
if the operating system is Plug & Play.
Clear NVRAM
The ESCD (Extended System Configuration Data) NVRAM (Non-volatile
Random Access Memory) is where the BIOS stores resource information for
both PNP and non-PNP devices in a bit string format. When the item is set to
Yes
, the system will reset ESCD NVRAM right after the system is booted up
and then set the setting of the item back to
No
automatically.
PCI Latency Timer
This item controls how long each PCI device can hold the bus before another
takes over. When set to higher values, every PCI device can conduct
transactions for a longer time and thus improve the effective PCI bandwidth.
