Specifications

Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) QSSC-S4R Technical Product Specification
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15. Basic Input/Output System (BIOS)
15.1 BIOS Architecture
The BIOS is implemented as firmware that resides in the Flash ROM. It provides hardware-specific initialization
algorithms and standard PC-compatible basic input/output (I/O) services, and standard QSSC-S4R
Server Board
features. The Flash ROM also contains firmware for certain embedded devices. These images are supplied by the
device manufacturers and are not specified in this document.
The BIOS implementation is based on the Intel
®
Platform Innovation Framework for EFI architecture and is compliant
with all Intel
®
Platform Innovation Framework for EFI architecture specifications specified in the Unified Extensible
Firmware Interface Reference Specification, Version 2.0. The Intel
®
Platform Innovation Framework for EFI is referred
to as “Framework” in this document.
15.1.1 Data Structure Descriptions
Data structures in this document are described in the “little endian” format. This means that the low- order byte of a
multi-byte data item in memory is at the lowest address, while the high-order byte is at the highest address. In some
memory layout descriptions, certain fields are marked as reserved. The software must initialize such fields to zero, and
ignore them when read. On an update operation, the software must preserve any reserved field.
15.2 BIOS Identification String
The BIOS Identification string is used to uniquely identify the revision of the BIOS being used on the server. The string
is formatted as follows:
BoardFamilyID.OEMID.MajorRev.MinorRev.BuildID.BuildDateTime
Where:
 BoardFamilyID = String name for this board family
- “QSSC-S4R” will be used for the Intel
®
7500 Server Board family
 OEMID = Three-character OEM ID. “QCI” is used for Quanta OEMID.
 MajorRev = Two decimal digits
 MinorRev = Two decimal digits
 BuildID = Four decimal digits
 BuildDateTime = Build date and time in MM/DD/YYYY; HH/MM format:
- MM = Two-digit month
- DD = Two-digit day of month
- YYYY = Four-digit year
- HH = Two-digit hour using 24-hour clock
- MM = Two-digit minute
For example, the following BIOS ID string is displayed on the POST diagnostic screen for BIOS Build 3 that is
generated on August 13, 2005 at 11:56 AM:
Qxxxxxx.QCI.01.00.0003.081320051156
The BIOS version in the Setup Utility is displayed as:
Qxxxxxx.QCI.01.00.0003
The BIOS ID is used to identify the BIOS image. It is not used to designate the board ID or the BIOS phase (Alpha,
Beta, etc.). The Board ID is available in the SMBIOS type 2 structure in which the phase of the BIOS can be
determined by the release notes associated with the image. The board ID is also available in the BIOS Setup. The
BIOS ID is available in the setup and SMBIOS type 0 structure.