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Power-on self-test. A power-on self-test (POST) is a process performed by firmware or software routines immediately after a computer or other digital electronic device is powered on. [1] POST processes may set the initial state of the device from firmware and detect if any hardware components are non-functional.
Various I/O protocols can be used, SPI being the most common. Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI, / ˈjuːɪfaɪ / or as an acronym) [c] is a specification that defines an architecture for the platform firmware used for booting a computer's hardware and its interface for interaction with the operating system.
Booting. A flow diagram of a computer booting. In computing, booting is the process of starting a computer as initiated via hardware such as a button on the computer or by a software command. After it is switched on, a computer's central processing unit (CPU) has no software in its main memory, so some process must load software into memory ...
The Option key, ⌥, is a modifier key present on Apple keyboards. It is located between the Control key and the Command key on a typical Mac keyboard. There are two Option keys on modern (as of 2020) Mac desktop and notebook keyboards, one on each side of the space bar. (As of 2005, some laptops had only one, in order to make room for the ...
On Apple Mac computers using Intel x86-64 processor architecture, the EFI system partition is initially left blank and unused for booting into macOS. [12] [13]However, the EFI system partition is used as a staging area for firmware updates [14] and for the Microsoft Windows bootloader for Mac computers configured to boot into a Windows partition using Boot Camp.
Mac OS 8.6 and later include the version number in the splash screen (for example, "Mac OS 9" in big black text). On early Macs without an internal hard drive, the computer boots up to a point where it needs to load the operating system from a floppy disk. The Mac displays a floppy disk icon with a blinking question mark until the user inserts ...
Target Disk Mode. Target Disk Mode (sometimes referred to as TDM or Target Mode) is a boot mode unique to Macintosh computers. When a Mac that supports Target Disk Mode [1] is started with the 'T' key held down, its operating system does not boot. Instead, the Mac's firmware enables its drives to behave as a SCSI, FireWire, Thunderbolt, or USB ...
BIOS interrupt call. BIOS implementations provide interrupts that can be invoked by operating systems and application programs to use the facilities of the firmware on IBM PC compatible [a] computers. Traditionally, BIOS calls are mainly used by DOS programs and some other software such as boot loaders (including, mostly historically ...