SeaBIOS is an open source

Open source

The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

 implementation of a 16-bit

16-bit

-16-bit architecture:The HP BPC, introduced in 1975, was the world's first 16-bit microprocessor. Prominent 16-bit processors include the PDP-11, Intel 8086, Intel 80286 and the WDC 65C816. The Intel 8088 was program-compatible with the Intel 8086, and was 16-bit in that its registers were 16...

 x86 BIOS

BIOS

In IBM PC compatible computers, the basic input/output system , also known as the System BIOS or ROM BIOS , is a de facto standard defining a firmware interface....

. SeaBIOS can run in an emulator or it can run natively on x86 hardware with the use of coreboot.

SeaBIOS is the default BIOS for the QEMU

QEMU

QEMU is a processor emulator that relies on dynamic binary translation to achieve a reasonable speed while being easy to port on new host CPU architectures....

 and KVM

Kernel-based Virtual Machine

Kernel-based Virtual Machine is a virtualization infrastructure for the Linux kernel. KVM supports native virtualization on processors with hardware virtualization extensions....

 virtual machines. Can be used with the Bochs

Bochs

Bochs is a portable x86 and x86-64 IBM PC compatible emulator and debugger mostly written in C++ and distributed as free software under GNU Lesser General Public License...

 emulator.

SeaBIOS has been tested with the GNU GRUB

GNU GRUB

GNU GRUB is a boot loader package from the GNU Project. GRUB is the reference implementation of the Multiboot Specification, which provides a user the choice to boot one of multiple operating systems installed on a computer or select a specific kernel configuration available on a particular...

, LILO

LILO (boot loader)

LILO is a generic boot loader for Linux.-Overview:LILO does not depend on a specific file system, and can boot an operating system from floppy disks and hard disks. One of up to sixteen different images can be selected at boot time. Various parameters, such as the root device, can be set...

, and SYSLINUX

SYSLINUX

The SYSLINUX Project is a suite of lightweight IBM PC MBR bootloaders for starting up computers with the Linux kernel. It is the work of H. Peter Anvin, and consists of several separate systems, the best-known of which is ISOLINUX.-List:...

 bootloaders. It has been tested with Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

, Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

, FreeDOS

FreeDOS

FreeDOS is an operating system for IBM PC compatible computers. FreeDOS is made up of many different, separate programs that act as "packages" to the overall FreeDOS Project...

, NetBSD

NetBSD

NetBSD is a freely available open source version of the Berkeley Software Distribution Unix operating system. It was the second open source BSD descendant to be formally released, after 386BSD, and continues to be actively developed. The NetBSD project is primarily focused on high quality design,...

, and OpenBSD

OpenBSD

OpenBSD is a Unix-like computer operating system descended from Berkeley Software Distribution , a Unix derivative developed at the University of California, Berkeley. It was forked from NetBSD by project leader Theo de Raadt in late 1995...

.

Features

• Graphical bootsplash screen.
• USB keyboard and mouse support.
• USB drive booting support.
• Support for 32-bit PCI BIOS calls.
• ATA DMA
  Direct memory access
  Direct memory access is a feature of modern computers that allows certain hardware subsystems within the computer to access system memory independently of the central processing unit ....
  
   and bus mastering
  Bus mastering
  In computing, bus mastering is a feature supported by many bus architectures that enables a device connected to the bus to initiate transactions...
  
   support.
• AHCI
  Advanced Host Controller Interface
  The Advanced Host Controller Interface is a technical standard defined by Intel that specifies the operation of Serial ATA host bus adapters in a non-implementation-specific manner....
  
   controllers support.
• Support USB
  Universal Serial Bus
  USB is an industry standard developed in the mid-1990s that defines the cables, connectors and protocols used in a bus for connection, communication and power supply between computers and electronic devices....
  
   UHCI and OHCI host controller interfaces.
• Support systems with multiple VGA
  Video Graphics Array
  Video Graphics Array refers specifically to the display hardware first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, but through its widespread adoption has also come to mean either an analog computer display standard, the 15-pin D-subminiature VGA connector or the 640×480 resolution...
  
   cards.
• Boot menu that allow booting from any drive or any CD-ROM
  CD-ROM
  A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
  
  .
• BIOS Boot Specification (BBS) calls.
• Rebooting on Control-Alt-Delete
  Control-Alt-Delete
  Control-Alt-Delete is a computer keyboard command on IBM PC compatible systems that can be used to reboot the computer, and summon the task manager or Windows Security in more recent versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system...
  
   key press.
• Dynamic e820
  E820
  e820 is shorthand to refer to the facility by which the BIOS of x86-based computer systems reports the memory map to the operating system or boot loader.It is accessed via the int 15h call, by setting the AX register to value E820 in hexadecimal....
  
   map generation.
• Logical block addressing
  Logical block addressing
  Logical block addressing is a common scheme used for specifying the location of blocks of data stored on computer storage devices, generally secondary storage systems such as hard disks....
  
  (LBA) 48-bit.
• Post Memory Manager (PMM).

External links

• Official website
• http://www.coreboot.org/SeaBIOS
• http://code.coreboot.org/p/seabios/