Protech Systems PA-6822 User Manual page 159

Chapter 3 Software
3-5. BIOS
3-5-1. Introduction
The board PA-6822 uses an AMI Aptio BIOS that is stored in the Serial Peripheral
Interface Flash Memory (SPI Flash) and can be updated. The SPI Flash contains the
BIOS Setup program, Power-on Self-Test (POST), the PCI auto-configuration utility,
LAN EEPROM information, and Plug and Play support.
Aptio is AMI's BIOS firmware based on the UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware
Interface) Specifications and the Intel Platform Innovation Framework for EFI. The
UEFI specification defines an interface between an operating system and platform
firmware. The interface consists of data tables that contain platform-related
information, boot service calls, and runtime service calls that are available to the
operating system and its loader. These provide standard environment for booting an
operating system and running pre-boot applications. Following illustration shows
Extensible Firmware Interface's position in the software stack.
EFI BIOS provides an user interface allow users the ability to modify hardware
configuration, e.g. change system date and time, enable or disable a system component,
decide bootable device priorities, setup personal password, etc., which is convenient
for modifications and customization of the computer system and allows technicians
another method for finding solutions if hardware has any problems.
The BIOS Setup program can be used to view and change the BIOS settings for the
computer. The BIOS Setup program is accessed by pressing the <Del> or <ESC> key
after the POST memory test begins and before the operating system boot begins. All
the menu settings are described in details in this chapter.
PA-6822 SERIES USER MANUAL Page 158