Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
AMI and Phoenix; however, Phoenix not only develops the BIOS for many systems, but
alsoistheprimaryBIOSdeveloperresponsiblefornewBIOSdevelopmentandnewBIOS
standards.
Another development in recent years has been the creation of separate BIOS products
for 32-bit and 64-bit desktop systems, mobile systems, 32-bit and 64-bit servers, and em-
bedded devices. Although all BIOS chips must perform some of the same tasks, a BIOS
product optimized for a mobile computer often needs additional support for features such
as docking modules, advanced battery power management, as well as bootable USB and
removable flash memory devices, whereas a BIOS optimized for a server needs support
for features such as advanced hardware monitoring and 64-bit PCI slots. By creating cus-
tomized BIOS versions for different platforms, BIOS vendors provide support for the fea-
tures needed by a particular computing platform and provide better performance and sta-
bility.
OEMs
Most OEMs contract with AMI or Phoenix for motherboard BIOS core and then perform
their own customizations for specific chipsets and motherboards. Although most use
either the AMI or Phoenix core offerings, some OEMs have developed their own compat-
ible BIOS ROMs independently. Companies such as Dell, HP/Compaq, AT&T, and Acer
have developed several of their own BIOS products. In some cases they may have started
with an AMI or Phoenix core that they licensed years ago, and continued development in-
house after that.
Even though AMI or Phoenix might have done the initial development, you still must get
upgrades or fixes from the system or motherboard manufacturer. This is really true for all
systems because the system or motherboard manufacturers customize the BIOS for their
boards.
AMI
The AMI BIOS is one of the most popular BIOSs in PC systems. Some versions of the
AMI BIOS are called Hi-Flex because of the high flexibility found in the BIOS config-
uration program. The AMI Hi-Flex BIOS products are used in Intel, AMI, and many oth-
er manufacturers' motherboards. AMI is also the only third-party BIOS manufacturer to
make its own motherboards and other hardware devices.
During power-up, the AMI BIOS ID string is displayed on the lower-left part of the
screen.ThisstringtellsyouvaluableinformationaboutwhichBIOSversionyouhaveand
about certain settings that the built-in setup program determines.
