Supermicro 440LX, Reference Manual

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Chapter 1: AMI BIOS
1-1
Chapter 1
AMI BIOS
1-1 Introduction
This chapter describes the AMIBIOS for the Intel 440FX/440LX
chipset which is designed for Intel Pentium
®
Pro 150/166/180/200
MHz and Pentium II 233/266/300 MHz processors. The AMI ROM
BIOS is stored in the Flash EEPROM and is easily upgraded
using a floppy disk-based program.
System BIOS
The BIOS is the basic input output system used in all IBM
®
PC,
XT™, AT
®
, and PS/2
®
compatible computers. The WinBIOS is a
high-quality example of a system BIOS.
Configuration Data
AT-compatible systems, also called ISA (Industry Standard Archi-
tecture) must have a place to store system information when the
computer is turned off. The original IBM AT had 64 bytes of non-
volatile memory storage in CMOS RAM. All AT-compatible sys-
tems have at least 64 bytes of CMOS RAM, which is usually part
of the Real Time Clock. Many systems have 128 bytes of CMOS
RAM.
How Data Is Configured
AMIBIOS provides a Setup utility in ROM that is accessed by
pressing <Del> at the appropriate time during system boot. Setup
configures data in CMOS RAM.
POST Memory Test
Normally, the only visible POST routine is the memory test. The
screen that appears when the system is powered on is shown on
the next page.
An AMIBIOS Identification string is displayed at the left bottom
corner of the screen, below the copyright message.