Initial BIOS load for a personal computer system

A personal computer system comprising:

• a system processor;
• a random access memory being the main memory and electrically coupled to the system processor;
• a system planar board having a plurality of I/O slots being electrically coupled to the system processor,
• a direct access storage device being electrically coupled to the system processor, the direct access storage device capable of storing a plurality of data records;
• a master boot record included in the direct access storage device, the master boot record having a data segment and an executable code segment, the data segment representing a hardware configuration of the personal computer system which is compatible with said master boot record;
• a read only memory being electrically coupled to the system processor, the read only memory having data representing a hardware configuration of the system;
• a first portion of an operational interface being included in the read only memory, said first portion of the operational interface initializing the system and the direct access storage device to load in said master boot record, said first portion of the operational interface further comparing the hardware configuratin data from the master boot record to the hardware configuration data of the read only memory to verify the compatibility of the master boot record with the system processor;
• a remaining portion of the operational interface being included in the direct access storage device, wherein after verifying the compatibility of the master boot record with the system processor, the first portion of the operational interface transfers control to the executable code segment of the master boot record in order to effect the loading of the remaining portion of the operational interface into the random access memory, said remaining portion of the operational interface superseding said first portion of the operational interface.

An apparatus for loading an operational interface into a personal computer system, the personal computer system having a system processor being electrically coupled to a random access memory, said apparatus comprising:

• a direct access storage device being electrically coupled to the system processor, the direct access storage device being capable of storing a plurality of data records;
• a read only memory being electrically coupled to the system processor;
• a first portion of the operational interface being included in the read only memory;
• and
• a remaining portion of the operational interface being included in the direct access storage device, wherein the first portion of the operational interface initializes the system processor and direct storage device to effect load the remaining portion of the operational interface into random access memory, said remaining portion of the operational interface effectively superseding the first portion of the operational interface to assist in the operation of the system.

A method for loading an operational interface from a direct access storage device of a personal computer system, the personal computer system having a system processor electrically coupled to a system planar, the planar further being electrically coupled to a random access memory, a read only memory, and the direct access storage device, said method comprising the steps of:

• (a) initializing the system with a first portion of the operational interface resident in the read only memory;
• (b) initializing with the first portion of the operational interface the direct access storage device, the direct access storage device further having a master boot record and the remaining portion of the operational interface;
• (c) loading with the first portion of the operational interface the master boot record into random access memory, the master boot record including a data segment and an executable code segment, the data segment having data representing the hardware of the system for which the remaining portion of the operational interface is compatible;
• (d) verifying the compatibility of the master boot record with the system hardware by comparing the data representing the system hardware to corresponding compatibility data stored in the read only memory;
• and
• (e) executing the code segment of the master boot record to load the remaining portion of the operational interface into the random access memory;
• and
• (f) passing control to the remaining portion of the operational interface once it is loaded into random access memory.