Sunnyvale, CA — (press release excerpt) — PC Engines, a developer of custom embedded PC hardware and firmware, today published the source code for its tinyBIOS embedded PC BIOS core. tinyBIOS was designed from the ground up for embedded PC applications such as network appliances. Features not needed or desired for embedded use were left out. For example, tinyBIOS does not have a setup screen.

tinyBIOS was written entirely in x86 assembly language and is easy to adapt. The open source package includes support for two chipsets — the ALI (Acer Labs) M1487 FINALi and M6117. Support for other chipsets and embedded x86 CPUs can be licensed from PC Engines, supplied by chipset manufacturers, or implemented by the user. Some features of tinyBIOS are . . .

• Unattended operation. No “keyboard failure — press F1 to continue”.

• Access to source code means ease of adaptation and debug — control your own destiny.

• No setup screen — this eliminates the cost of CMOS RAM configuration and failures.

• Small size (around 16KB) — more space for your application; easier to understand and navigate.

• Use A386 to assemble.

Pascal Dornier, founder of PC Engines, said: “I consider tinyBIOS a valuable complement to open source operating systems such as Linux and FreeBSD. Instead of reinventing the wheel with yet another memory test routine and boot loader, embedded systems designers will be able to focus on their hardware and application software.”

tinyBIOS can be downloaded free of charge from the PC Engines website. It is released under the “Common Public License”, which is a generic version of the IBM Public License. The CPL license is included as one of the files in the free tinyBIOS download package.

 
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