JPH11143691A - Bios setup system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate the need of performing BIOS setup every time in the case of switching and operating an OS(open system). SOLUTION: A BIOS setup program 5 is composed of a PC common item setting program 5a for setting items independent of the OS and an OS intrinsic item setting program 5b for setting the items depending on the OS. Corresponding to them, a CMOS RAM 6 is also provided with a PC common item area 6a for storing the set contents of the items independent of the OS and an OS intrinsic item area 6b for storing the set contents of the items depending on the OS.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an initialization of a hardware environment by a BIOS setup in a personal computer system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, personal computers (P
The initial setting of the hardware environment according to C) is performed when a main power switch of the PC is turned on by a program called BIOS setup stored in a ROM.
It has been determined while referring to and updating the contents recorded and held in the CMOS RAM backed up by the battery.

[0003]

However, according to the conventional BIOS setup, in a system in which a plurality of operation systems (OS) are installed in one PC, it is necessary to change a hardware environment for each OS, For example, the plug & play setting is such that when the OS is switched and operated, when the PC is turned on, B
It was necessary to set the hardware environment in the IOS setup, and the operability was poor.

[0004]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a unique item setting for setting a hardware environment unique to each OS in a BIOS setup system in a computer capable of mounting a plurality of OSs. Means, common item setting means for setting a hardware environment independent of individual OSs, unique item recording means for recording the unique items set by the unique item setting means for each OS, and common item setting means And a common item recording means for recording the common items set by the setting means.

[0005]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a PC showing a first embodiment of the present invention. PC is CPU or RO
PC body 1 with M, RAM, hard disk, etc.
It comprises a display 2, a keyboard 3, a mouse 4, and other peripheral devices. BIO in ROM in PC 1
The S setup program 5 is stored, and the contents set by the BIOS setup program 5 are written and stored in the CMOS RAM 6 backed up by a battery.

[0006] The BIOS setup program 5
It comprises a PC common item setting program 5a for setting items that do not depend on S, and an OS-specific item setting program 5b for setting items that depend on the OS. Correspondingly, the CMOS RAM 6 also has a PC common item area 6a for storing the setting contents of items independent of the OS, and an OS-specific item area 6b for storing the setting contents of items that depend on the OS.

Here, the OS-specific item setting program 5b
The OS-specific item area 6b is prepared by the number of installable OSs (for example, four in the case of a PC / AT compatible machine). Hereinafter, the operation of the present embodiment will be described. First, the PC user turns off the main power supply of the PC body 1.
Set to N. The BIOS setup program 5 is a PC
The common item setting program 5a displays on the display 2 a screen prompting the user to set a PC common item that is an item independent of the OS.

When there is no key input from the user for a predetermined time, for example, 10 seconds, the PC common item setting program 5a uses the current contents set in the PC common item area 6a of the CMOS RAM 6. I do. A corresponding key for the user to change the current content, for example, Ctrl
When "+ Alt + Delete" is input, the PC common item setting program 5a displays PC common items and their set values. The user operates a predetermined key while looking at the screen to change the set value of a desired PC common item. The PC common item setting program 5a stores the changed setting value in the CM
The data is written in the PC common item area 6a of the OS RAM 6.

Next, the OS specific item setting program 5b displays a screen for prompting the type of the installed OS and which OS to select from among the installed OS. The user selects, for example, OS A from the installed OSs A, B,.... The OS-specific item setting program 5b responds to the selected OS.
A unique items and their set values are displayed. The user operates a predetermined key while looking at the screen to change a desired OSA-specific item setting value. The OS specific item setting program 5b stores the changed setting value in the OS of the CMOS RAM 6.
Write to the OSA area of the unique item area 6b.

Here, when setting the OS-specific items,
Similarly to the PC common item, when there is no key input from the user for a certain period of time, the current contents set in the OS specific item area 6b of the CMOS RAM 6 are used. PC
When operating, the hardware environment common to each OS is:
The operation is performed with reference to the PC common item area 6a of the CMOS RAM 6. The hardware environment unique to each OS is CMO
It operates with reference to the area of the activated OS in the OS-specific item area 6b of the SRAM 6.

As described above, in the first embodiment of the present invention, the BIOS setup program includes an OS
A PC common item setting program for setting items that do not depend on the OS, and an OS-specific item setting program for setting items that depend on the OS.
For storing the setting contents of items independent of the OS
Since the C common item area and the OS specific item area for storing the setting contents of the items dependent on the OS are provided, a plurality of O
In the PC where S is installed, the hardware environment that must be set for each OS
It can be set on the RAM, and when operating by switching a plurality of OSs, the BIO
There is no need to perform S setup, and operability can be improved.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the second embodiment, after the OS is started, a hardware environment set by software, for example, a keyboard repeat interval or the like can be set by BIOS setup. The configuration of the PC is the same as that described in the first embodiment, and the OS-specific item setting program 5b of the BIOS setup program 5
Then, a desired item in the hardware environment set by each OS is ported and can be set by the BIOS setup program 5.

The operation of the second embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment, except that when the BIOS is set up by the OS specific item setting program 5b, there is a hardware environment that the user wants to set for each OS. When a desired OS is selected from among the installed OS A, B,..., A setting item specific to the selected OS and its setting value are displayed, and the user can perform predetermined operations while viewing the screen. Is operated to change the set value of the desired setting item. OS
The unique item setting program 5b stores the changed setting value in C
The data is written to the selected OS area in the OS specific item area 6b of the MOS RAM 6.

As described above, in the second embodiment of the present invention, the items set by software in each OS can be initialized at the time of BIOS setup. The hardware environment settings that have been set after the operation can be set by a single operation at the time of BIOS setup. In addition, by porting items not set by a general user to the BIOS setup, it is possible to protect a hardware environment that the user does not want to set individually.

In each of the above embodiments, the present invention is applied to a PC.
Has been described, but the present invention is applicable to computers in general, from portable terminals to host computers.

[0016]

As described above, according to the present invention, a hardware environment specific to each OS is set and recorded for each OS in BIOS setup in a computer capable of mounting a plurality of OSs. Therefore, when a plurality of OSs are switched and operated, it is not necessary to perform the BIOS setup every time, and the operability is improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a PC showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 PC body 1 2 Display 3 Keyboard 4 Mouse 5 BIOS setup program 5 5a PC common item setting program 5b OS specific item setting program 6 CMOS RAM 6a PC common item area 6a 6b OS specific item area 6b

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A BIOS setup system for a computer on which a plurality of operating systems can be mounted, a unique item setting means for setting a hardware environment unique to each operating system, and a hardware environment independent of each operating system. Common item setting means for setting, unique item recording means for recording the unique items set by the unique item setting means for each operation system, and common item for recording the common items set by the common item setting means BIOS provided with item recording means
Setup system.