What is BIOS?

About BIOS

The BIOS - a short form for Basic Input/Output System is a setup program which
is the first code that is run by a computer when it is powered on. The main function of BIOS is to load and start the operating system. The BIOS initialises systems like video display card,keyboard, mouse, hard disk, CD/DVD drive and other hardware, then it executes the software related to Operating system and the control goes to the OS. We call this process as booting of a PC.

The BIOS is stored in a ROM chip in the system mother board. Now a days it is possible to upgrade the BIOS software by modifying the contents of this ROM chip.

The BIOS chip is powered by a CMOS/BIOS battery. This enables us to save customized settings in the BIOS. If the battery is down, then the system uses the default BIOS setting each time the PC boots.

We can configure the hardware using the User interface of BIOS. We can access the user interface of BIOS by pressing a certain key on the keyboard when the PC starts ( normally F12 or F10 Key). We can set system clock, enable or disable system components, and select boot sequence etc.

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