PRESENTATION ON

COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE

BIOS AND OS LOADING

Vikash Kumar .A
Ramanujam School Of Computer Science,
Pondicherry University.
Read Only
Memory : - Learn How Everything
Works

ROM
 HISTORY OF
ROM
BOOTSTRAP
PING
Every stored - program computer requires some form
of non-volatile, or erasable, storage to store the initial
program that runs when the computer is powered on.

BEFORE 1948
 Until then it was not a stored-program computer as
every program had to be manually wired into the machine,
which could take days to weeks
ENIAC
 Then it is employed as non-volatile storage for
programs in most early stored-program computers, in ROM
(Read – Only Memory)
In 1960’S
 Invent of integrated circuits
 Both ROM and static RAM were implemented as arrays
of transistors in silicon chips
 A ROM memory cell could be implemented using fewer
transistors than an SRAM memory cell, since the latter
requires a latch (comprising 5-20 transistors) to retain its
contents
In 1980’S
 Most home PC stored a BASIC interpreter or Operating
System in ROM as non-volatile storage
 Were too expensive.
 Later the IBM PC XT often included magnetic disk
drives, and larger amounts of RAM, allowing them to load
their operating systems from disk into RAM,
TYPE’S OF
ROMS
Programmable Read - Only Memory

 Erasable Programmable Read - Only Memory

 Electrically Erasable Programmable Read -

Only Memory

• Electrically alterable Read - Only

Memory

• Flash Memory
PROGRAMMABLE READ - ONLY MEMORY
 One-Time Programmable ROM (OTP)
 Programmed using a special device called a PROM
programmer
 PROM can only be programmed once.
ERASABLE PROGRAMMABLE READ - ONLY
MEMORY
 More than one time Programmable
 Can be erased by exposure to strong Ultraviolet
Light (typically for 10 minutes or longer)
 Programmed using a special device called a PROM
programmer
ELECTRICALLY ERASABLE PROGRAMMABLE
READ – ONLY MEMORY
 It is based on a similar semiconductor
 Entire contents (or selected banks) to be electrically
erased, then rewritten electrically.

ELECTRICALLY ALTERABLE READ – ONLY

MEMORY
 Type of EEPROM that can be modified one bit at a time
 Very slow process and again requires higher voltage
(usually around 12 V)
FLASH MEMORY
 It is a modern type of EEPROM
 Can be erased and rewritten faster than ordinary
EEPROM
 Newer designs feature very high endurance (exceeding
1,000,000 cycles)
BIOS`
``
BASIC
INPUT
OUTPUT SYSTEM
“bye-ose
BIOS
 It is typically placed in a ROM Chip that comes with
your MB.
 It is Built-in software that determines what a
computer can do without accessing programs from a disk.
 It also makes it possible for a computer to boot itself.

 Many modern PCs have a Flash BIOS, which means

that the BIOS has been recorded on a Flash Memory chip,
which can be updated if necessary.
BIOS is a group of programs.
ROM is a hardware chip used to store BIOS.
 POWER GOOD
SIGNAL
 The internal power supply turns on, initializes and then
takes a few moments to generate reliable power for the rest
of the computer.

 After a Power Good signal is received, or after the reset

button is released and there is confirmation of reliable
power, the processor will be ready to start executing.

 If not within expected parameters, the chipset will

generate a reset signal to the processor in the same fashion
as if you were to touch the reset button.

 This will continue until the motherboard receives a Power

Good signal from the power supply
BIOS BOOT
SEQUENCE
 The internal power supply turns on and it receives
the Power Good Signal from the power supply.
 The processor will be ready to start executing.
 But it is suffering from amnesia; there is nothing at all
in the memory to execute.
 Programmers pre-program the processor to always
look at BIOS ROM for the start of the BIOS boot program
 At the location FFFF0h, right at the end of the system
memory
 The BIOS performs the Power-On Self Test (POST)
POWER-ON SELF
TEST
POST ERRORS

 If there are any fatal errors, the boot process stops.

 POST beep codes can be found in this area.

AMI BEEP CODE’S (AMERICAN
MEGATRENDS)
# of Beeps Error Description

1 Refresh Failure The memory refresh Circuitry is faulty

2 Parity Error Parity error in the Base (1st 64K) of memory

3 64K Base Memory Error Memory error in the base memory (1st 64K)

4 Timer Not Operational Timer 1 is not functioning (also caused by error in base memory)

5 Processor Error CPU error

6 8042 Gate A20 Failure Unable to switch to protected mode

7 Processor Exception Interrupt error The CPU on the CPU card generated an interrupt error

8 Display Memory Read/Write Error Video adapter is missing, incorrectly seated or has faulty memory

9 ROM checksum error The ROM checksum does not match that of the BIOS

10 Coms Shutdown Register Read/Write The shutdown register for coms RAM has failed

11 Cache Memory Bad The cache memory test has failed. Cache memory will be disabled. *** DO NOT
enable it ***
AWARD BEEP
CODE’S
Beep Code Error

1 Long 2 Short Video Card Error - Either re-seat or replace video card

Repeating beeps Memory Error - Memory is either damaged or badly seated

Repeating Hi/Low Beeps Damaged or Overheating CPU

Hi Frequency Beeps Overheating CPU

IBM BEEP
CODE’S Beep Code Error

1 Short Beep Normal POST, System booted OK

2 Short Beeps POST Error - Code on Display

No Beep Power supply or Motherboard error

Continuous Beep Power supply or Motherboard error

Repeating short beeps Power supply or Motherboard error

1 short, 1 long beep System board error

1 long, 2 short beeps Display adapter error (MDA/CGA)

1 long, 3 short beeps Display adapter error (EGA/VGA)

3 long beeps 3270 keyboard card

BIOS BOOT SEQUENCE
cont…
 The BIOS code begins its search by looking for a video
card

 The BIOS begins searching for other devices that

The floppy drive is located at 0000:7C00
The IDE/ATA hard disk BIOS will be found at C8000h
 If Hard Disk Will not be found by BIOS means

it shows a errors
message
DISK BOOT ERROR…
BIOS BOOT SEQUENCE
cont…
 The BIOS displays its startup screen

 It will also test for Memory count-up which is

displayed in the screen.
CMOS~~~
COMPLEMENTARY
METAL
Oxide Semiconductor
 CMOS
Hardware that is common, necessary
but may change
 RAM, hard drives, floppy drives, serial and parallel
ports

 Programs are stored on the system BIOS chip, while

the changeable data is stored on a CMOS chip
CMOS SETUP UTILITIES
 CMOS SETUP
PROGRAM
 The data on the CMOS chip can be accessed and
updated through the CMOS setup program.

 American Megatrends (AMI), Award software, and

Phoenix Technologies are the main manufacturers of
BIOS.

 The CMOS setup can be accessed when the system

boots, but there are different ways of doing that
ACCESSING THE CMOS
 AMI and Award  Phoenix
 Press DEL  Press Ctrl-Alt-Esc or F2

Other possible key combinations are:

DEL, Ctrl-Alt-Ins, Ctrl-A, Ctrl-S, Ctrl-F1, F2, F10
 CMOS SETUP
 The floppy drive, hard drive, and the date/time settings
can be changed using the standard CMOS setup

 Modern computers provide extra CMOS settings for

memory management, password and booting options, error
handling, and power management
CMOS SETUP
CMOS SETUP

The following CMOS setting options are

available:

 CPU soft menu – Enables you to set the voltage

and multiplier settings on the motherboard for the CPU.
 Advanced BIOS feature – Used for selecting boot
options.
 Advanced chipset features – Deals with
extremely low-level chipset functions.
CMOS SETUP

The following CMOS setting options are

available (continued):

 Integrated peripherals – Allows you to configure,

enable, or disable onboard ports.
 Power management setup – Used to setup power
management settings for the system.
 PnP/PCI configurations – Used for assigning IRQs
to certain resources
CMOS SETUP

Other options include:

 Load Fail-Safe Defaults: used when low-level

problems occur
 Load Optimized Defaults: sets the CMOS to the
best possible speed and stability of the system
 Set Password
 Save and Exit Setup
 Exit Without Saving
SOFT MENU
ADVANCED BIOS
FEATURES
ADVANCED CHIPSET
FEATURES
INTEGRATED
PERIPHERALS
POWER MANAGEMENT
SETUP
PLUG AND PLAY
CONFIGURATIONS
CMOS PASSWORD
PHOENIX BIOS SETUP
OLDER AWARD CMOS
SETUP
 CMOS
MAINTENANCE
 Common causes of loosing CMOS data are
 Battery run out, dirt, faulty power supply, electrical
surges, and chip creeps
 The CMOS settings can be checked by memorizing
settings, using Optimized defaults, and backing up a
copy of the CMOS

To backup your CMOS to a floppy, use a third-party program

such as cmossave.zip
 BATTER
Y
 Since the data stored on a CMOS chip can be
saved, power is required when the computer is
turned off

 Power is supplied by a battery on the

motherboard

 Batteries are mounted in one of three ways:

 External battery (now obsolete)

 Onboard battery
 Built-in battery (built into the CMOS chip and very
common today)
 CLUES TO A WEAK
BATTERY
 Clock in Windows begins
to slow down
 System keeps losing
CMOS data when you
turn it off
 If you have an external
battery, check it with a
voltmeter (3.6 or 6 volts)
 If a built-in battery dies,
replace the motherboard
(seldom happens)
 OS
Loading…
OPERATING
SYSTEM
OS BOOT
SEQUENCE
 Once the BIOS finishes what it needs to do, it begins
searching for a drive to boot an operating system
 Most are set to first look for a bootable floppy disk, and if
one is not found then proceed to a hard disk, which is
usually the C: drive. Some BIOS's permit you to boot from
your CD-ROM drive
OS BOOT SEQUENCE
cont…
 If it is searching a hard disk, it looks for a master boot
record at cylinder 0, head 0, sector 1, the first sector on the
disk.

 Once the boot sector is found and its contents or data

verified, the BIOS starts the process of booting the
operating system by using the information in the boot sector

 If a Master Boot Record is found, it is read into memory at

location 0000:7c00

 The small program in the Master Boot Record will attempt

to locate an active (bootable) partition in the hard drives
partition table

 If such a partition is found, the boot sector of that

partition is also read into memory at location 0000:7C00
OS BOOT SEQUENCE
cont…
 Keep in mind that each operating system has its own
boot sector format

 The next step involves the small program in the boot

sector locating the first part of the operating system's kernel
loader program

 If no boot device of any type can be found, the system

will display an error message and stop

“No boot device”

OS BOOT SEQUENCE
cont…
STEP
1:
OS BOOT SEQUENCE
cont… STEP 2:
OS BOOT SEQUENCE
cont…
STEP
3:
OS BOOT SEQUENCE
cont…
SINGLE OS
BOOT PROCESS
SINGLE OS BOOT
PROCESS POWER ON

BIOS
CONTROL

BIOS
OPERATION

MBR Program
(Booting Process)

Executing first sector of disk

Partition Table to find active

Partition Partition

PBR locate system file

Win98  Win XP’s 

io.sys ntoskrnl
MULTIPLE OS
BOOT PROCESS
Multiple OS Process will be slightly different
from single OS Process
MULTIPLE OS BOOT
PROCESS

Multiple OS Boot Process

Microsoft Way Non-Microsoft Way

Microsoft Way
BIOS Control

MBR looks into partition

table

PBR of active
partition

But Win98 installed (altered to

Win Xp)

No Win98 contain( file like

io.sys)

It contain the
ntldr

Ntldr looks into “boot.ini” (loads

the OS)

If Win 98 select then it looks for

bootsect.dos
Non-Microsoft Way
 In this system, installing multiple OSes is
conceptually simple

 First make as many Primary Partitions and Logical

Partition as you want

 Then set the status of one of the Partition as

“Active”, and install on OS. After this set the status
of that partition as “Hidden” (or “Inactive” ) and set
another Partition as “Active” and install another OS
Non-Microsoft Way

3 points
 Displays a list of all OSes present in both Primary and
Logical Partitions.

 When a user select one, Boot Loader makes the

Partition of that OS as Active and passes the control to it

 Then, the Boot Sector of the corresponding OS takes

control and loads the OS. This Boot Sector may be PBR of a
Primary Partition or LEBR of a Logical Extended Partition.
By this way, each OS remains independent of each other.
Thank