BIOS Chip
Definition
BIOS is an acronym which stands for basic input output system. The BIOS chip is an essential part of a PC. It has has many important functions which mostly relate to booting the computer.
History
The acronym BIOS was coined by Gary Kildall, who conceived of the BIOS chip as a hardware-independent module, and originally used the term to describe the loading period of his operating system.
Function
The BIOS chip starts up the computer, loads basic drivers, loads the operating system, checks hardware systems, and loads other BIOS programs on the computer.
Features
The first instructions run by a computer are those from the BIOS chip. The internal clock of a computer runs off the BIOS chip.
Considerations
In the past, it was common to require BIOS upgrades, but this is less common today.
Fun Fact
When you enter into the BIOS configuration system portion of your computer upon starting up, the screen you see is run off the BIOS chip.
Tags: BIOS chip, Chip Definition, operating system