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BIOSSIG.DOC
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1988-12-06
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BIOSSIG is a BIOS ROM Signature Identification Database/Program. BIOSSIG
is a "Work In Progress". It is hoped that the program, written in Borland's
Turbo Prolog 2.0, can be made to appear "artifically intelligent" in such
a manner as to accurately determine the Signature of a BIOS ROM not in its
current database. In its current implementation BIOSSIG simply matches the
contents of its database with the contents of your BIOS. One option looks
for an exact match and reports its results very quickly. Another option
only looks at BIOSs that have the same IBM Model Id Byte as your BIOS. This
option takes longer. You may also print a formatted report describing the
signatures of all of the BIOSs know to us today.
BIOSSIG starts in Color, without suppressing CGA "Snow". It's Color scheme may
be modified from the Optional Customization menu. Some Monochrome adapters
do not display the default BIOSSIG color scheme (others do). If your monochrome
screen blanks and all disk activity stops without any messages appearing, then
monochrome may be selected on start up by including "mono" on the command line.
Some Color Graphics Adapters display "snow" on your color screen if they
are accessed via direct writes to video memory. If you do see "snow", try
setting Snow Suppression Required. Using this setting slows down the display
slightly to prevent generating the snow. No Snow Suppression will restore
BIOSSIG to its fastest display speed. CGA Snow suppression may be selected on
start up by including "snow" on the command line or by exercizing the optional
customization menu.
BIOSSIG prints 132 Columns of information per page. If you select 6 Lines/Inch,
BIOSSIG will print 5 Signatures/Page. If you select 8 Lines/Inch, BIOSSIG
will print 7 Signatures/Page.
For the benefit of those persons with slower machines and to give some
indication that the program is working while it scans the entire database
(Now at 110 entries and growing) BIOSSIG displays the file name of each BIOS
Signature that matches your BIOS ROM at least as well as the default
percentage (currently Zero percent). The lower the match value,the more
information that will be displayed while the program is working. A value
of 0 displays the percentage match between your BIOS ROM and every other
BIOS ROM in the database. A value of 100 would only display an exact match
(if any). Setting the Optional Match Limit to 50% restricts the amount of
output while the program is attempting to determine the percentage match
between your machine and the rest of the database.
Sample BIOS Signature Screen
╔═════════════════════════════════════════════════════ BIOS Signature 3.0a ════╗
║Model Id Byte: Address: FFFFE Match: 100% ║
║ FC Match: 100% ║
║ FC ┌─────────────────────────┐ ║
║Date: Address: FFFF5 Match: 100% │The top line of each pair│ ║
║ 07/03/86 │comes from your BIOS ROM,│ ║
║ 07/03/86 │bottom line from database│ ║
║Part Number: Address: FE000 Match: 100% └─────────────────────────┘ ║
║ 0003279 ║
║ 0003279 ║
║Compatibility: Address: FE020 Match: 100% ║
║ IBM ║
║ IBM ║
║Copyright: Address: FE008 Match: 100% ║
║ COPR. NCR 1986 ║
║ COPR. NCR 1986 ║
║OEM Revision: Address: FFFEA Match: 100% ║
║ NCR4-2 ║
║ NCR4-2 ║
║ ║
║BIOS Identification: Honeywell Advanced Processor ( NCR P8 ) ║
║ Source: Ricki A. Vick ║
║ Date: 19 July 1988 BIOS Signature File: NCR4-2 ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
Press F10 for next worst match, Press Esc to Quit
For the purposes of the BIOS Signature Project a BIOS ROM Signature consists of
the following six pieces of information:
Model Id Byte
Date
Part Number
Compatibility
Copyright
OEM Revision
Model Id Byte:
IBM puts a coded byte in BIOS ROM memory location FFFFE. PC Magazine
June 28, 1988 published a list of the IBM Model Id Bytes as follows:
FF - IBM PC
FE - IBM PC-XT
FD - IBM PCjr
FC - IBM PC AT
FB - IBM PC-XT(rev 1)
FA - IBM PS/2 Model 30
F9 - IBM PC Convertible
F8 - IBM PS/2 Model 80
Date:
IBM puts the Date the BIOS ROM was issued in BIOS ROM memory location FFFF5.
Part Number:
IBM put the Part Number of the BIOS ROM in the early BIOS ROM chips in BIOS
ROM memory location FE000. The BIOS Signature Database uses the Part Number
if appropriate or other identifying text if not an IBM BIOS ROM.
Compatibility:
Nominally all of the BIOS ROMs of interest are IBM compatible. The story is
that when the first IBM PC was introduced some programs looked for "IBM" in
the BIOS ROM. If "IBM" was not there the programs (a) didn't run or
(b) trashed something. This is the theory behind looking for "IBM" in BIOS
ROM memory. Not all modern (nominally IBM compatible) ROMs contain the IBM
trademark. Those BIOSs that do contain the "IBM" normally put it where IBM
puts its copyright notice.
Copyright:
IBM puts a Copyright notice for the BIOS ROM in BIOS ROM memory location FE008.
Most other manufacturers also put copyright notices in their own BIOS Roms.
There is some discussion as to what it takes to be a legal copyright notice.
Minimally there should be the Copyright symbol, a "C" within a circle. Most
BIOS ROMs approximate this symbol with a (C) or (c) using matched parentheses
to enclose the "C". The word Copyright should be spelled out if the symbol is
not present. The Year for which the copyright is claimed is required. The
name of the entity claiming the copyright is the last required information.
OEM Revision:
Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have added information to uniquely
identify a BIOS ROM. This is an OEM Revision (Number). When an OEM BIOS ROM
initializes the PC it normally displays its revision on the Console.
Address:
This is the BIOS ROM memory address (shown in Hexadecimal Notation) where the
information may be found in matching BIOS ROMs.
Match:
This is the Percentage Match between Your BIOS ROM and the BIOS ROM from
the BIOS Signature Database. It is computed by recursively matching the
longest common substrings between the contents of the database and the
corresponding areas of your BIOS ROM memory. An Exact Match yields 100%.
If 10 characters out of 20 are the same, even if they are not in the exact
order of the database, then the match is 50%.
The Overall match is computed by arbitrarily assigning a length of one to the
Model Id Byte and the Date. For each item in the signature the Match is
multiplied by the length in characters, the sum of these products is divided
by the total length giving the Overall Match as a percentage of the total
characters.
BIOS Identification:
A Short description of the BIOS ROM mentioning any identifying characteristics.
Source:
The Name of the Person who first supplied the BIOS Signature Project with the
required information.
Date:
The Date the information was acquired.
BIOS Signature File:
The File containing the contents of that BIOS ROM. Also used as a unique
identifier.