The Basic Input Output System, abbreviated 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.
BIOS instructs the computer on how to perform a number of basic functions such as booting and keyboard control.
BIOS is also used to identify and configure the hardware in a computer such as the hard drive, floppy drive, optical drive, CPU, memory, etc.
The BIOS is accessed and configured through the BIOS Setup Utility. The BIOS Setup Utility is, for all reasonable purposes, the BIOS itself. All available options in BIOS are configurable via the BIOS Setup Utility.
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 examples where making specific changes in the BIOS Setup Utility affects how the computer works with the attached hardware:
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 PC is running Windows XP, Windows Vista, Linux, Unix, or no operating system at all - BIOS functions outside of the operating system environment and is no way dependent upon it.
