Supero P4DCE Plus II, User Manual

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Appendix A: AwardBIOS
4-1
Chapter 4
BIOS
4-1 Introduction
This chapter describes the AwardBIOS™ for the P4DC6/P4DC6+/P4DC6+II/
P4DCE/P4DCE+/P4DCE+II. The Award ROM BIOS is stored in a Flash
integrated circuit and can be easily upgraded using a floppy disk-based
program.
Note: Due to periodic changes to the AwardBIOS™, some settings may
have been added or deleted and might not yet be included in this manual.
Please refer to the Support Manual Download area of the Supermicro web
site http://www.supermicro.com for any changes to the BIOS that may not
be reflected in this manual.
System BIOS
The BIOS is the "Basic Input Output System" used in all IBM ® PC, XT™, AT ® ,
and PS/2 ® compatible computers. The AwardBIOS™ Flash chip stores the
system parameters, such type of disk drives, video displays, etc. in its
CMOS memory (CMOS = Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor -- a
battery-maintained RAM in the BIOS). The CMOS memory, usually refer-
enced as just "CMOS", requires very little electrical power. When the com-
puter is turned off, a back-up battery provides power to the BIOS Flash
chip, enabling it to retain system parameters. Each time the computer is
powered-on the computer is configured with the values stored in the BIOS
RAM by the system BIOS, which gains control at boot-up.
How To Change the Configuration Data
The CMOS information that determines the system parameters may be
changed by entering the BIOS Setup utility. This Setup utility can be ac-
cessed by pressing <Del> at the appropriate time during system boot (see
below).