What is BIOS in Computers?

Ever since the day Microsoft introduced the world to DOS, the BIOS has been an integral part of our computing systems. Yet, not many know much about it other than its full name. The BIOS is an integral part of our computers and had stayed that way for years. Though a lot of us have either installed or upgraded our Operating Systems multiple times over, the BIOS always remains the same from day one.

The Basic Input Output System, usually referred to as BIOS, is software stored on a small memory chip on the motherboard.BIOS is sometimes incorrectly referred to as the Basic Integrated Operating System.

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What is BIOS?

BIOS (basic input/output system) is a software program made available to the microprocessor on an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM) chip. When you switch on your machine, the microprocessor passes control to the BIOS which is always located at the exact same place on the EPROM. When the BIOS boots up, it first runs a check to ensure all attachments are in place and operational. Only once that is done, it will load the OS into your computer’s RAM from your disk storage. Owing to the BIOS, your machine’s individual software are exempted from having knowledge of the attached input & output devices. Therefore, when device details change, only the BIOS needs to be changed instead of every individual piece of software. 

Although theoretically, The BIOS is supposed to be the intermediary between the microprocessor and the I/O devices, in some cases the BIOS can even facilitate the direct transfer of data to memory from the devices for those that require a faster data flow, such as video cards. If the BIOS doesn’t work smoothly, your OS will most certainly fail. The four main functionalities of the BIOS can be listed as:

• POST (Power on self test) – Test the computer hardware to ensure no errors exist before the OS is loaded.
• Bootstrap Ladder – Locate the OS, if one is detected, pass on the control to it.
• BIOS drivers – These are low level drivers that give the computer basic operational control over the computer’s hardware.
• BIOS / CMOS setup – This is a configuration program that allows one to configure hardware settings.

BIOS contains a number of hardware configuration options that can be changed through the setup utility. Saving these changes and restarting the computer applies the changes to the BIOS and alters the way BIOS instructs the hardware to function.

Here are some common things you can do in most BIOS systems:

• Change the Boot Order
• Load BIOS Setup Defaults
• Remove a BIOS Password
• Create a BIOS Password
• Change the Date and Time
• Change Floppy Drive Settings
• Change Hard Drive Settings
• Change CD/DVD/BD Drive Settings
• View Amount of Memory Installed
• Change the Boot Up NumLock Status
• Enable or Disable the Computer Logo
• Enable or Disable the Quick Power On Self Test (POST)
• Enable or Disable the CPU Internal Cache
• Enable or Disable the Caching of BIOS
• Change CPU Settings
• Change Memory Settings
• Change System Voltages
• Enable or Disable RAID
• Enable or Disable Onboard USB
• Enable or Disable Onboard IEEE1394
• Enable or Disable Onboard Audio
• Enable or Disable Onboard Floppy Controller
• Enable or Disable Onboard Serial/Parallel Ports
• Enable or Disable ACPI
• Change the ACPI Suspend Type
• Change the Power Button Function
• Change Power-on Settings
• Change Which Display is Initialized First on Multi-Display Setups
• Reset Extended System Configuration Data (ESCD)
• Enable or Disable BIOS Control of System Resources
• Change Fan Speed Settings
• View CPU and System Temperatures
• View Fan Speeds
• View System Voltages

All modern computer motherboards contain BIOS software. 
BIOS access and configuration on PC systems is independent of any operating system because the BIOS is part of the motherboard hardware. It doesn't matter if a computer is running Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Linux, Unix, or no operating system at all - BIOS functions outside of the operating system environment and is no way dependent upon it.