APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DECREASING THE MEMORY REQUIREMENTS FOR BIOS IN A PERSONAL COMPUTER SYSTEM.

摘要

AN APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DECREASING THE MEMORY REQUIREMENTS OF BIOS IN A PERSONAL COMPUTER SYSTEM INCLUDES STORING A FIRST PORTION OF BIOS IN MEMORY AND A SECOND PORTION ON A DIRECT STORAGE ACCESS DEVICE. THE PERSONAL COMPUTER SYSTEM COMPRISES A SYSTEM PROCESSOR, A RANDOM ACCESS MAIN MEMORY, A READ ONLY MEMORY, AND AT LEAST ONR DIRECT ACCESS STORAGE DEVICE. THE FIRST PORTION OF BIOS ONLY INCLUDES ROUTINES FOR INITIALIZING THE SYSTEM AND THE DIRECT ACCESS STORAGE DEVICE TO READ IN A MASTER BOOT RECORD INTO THE SYSTEM FROM THE DIRECT ACCESS STORAGE DEVICE. THE MASTER BOOT RECORD INCLUDES A DATA SEGMENT AND AN EXECUTABLE CODE SEGMENT. THE FIRST BIOS PORTION VECTORS THE SYSTEM PROCESSOR TO EXECUTE THE EXECUTABLE CODE SEGMENT OF THE MASTER BOOT RECORD. THE EXECUTABLE CODE SEGMENT LOADS IN THE REMAINING BIOS PORTION FROM THE DIRECT ACCESS STORAGE DEVICE INTO RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY SUPERSEDING THE FIRST BIOS PORTION.(FIG 4)