Editing BIOS (section)

=== Modern use ===
Some older [[operating systems]], for example [[MS-DOS]], rely on the BIOS to carry out most input/output tasks within the PC.<ref name="computing-basics-94"/>

Calling [[real mode]] BIOS services directly is inefficient for [[protected mode]] (and [[long mode]]) operating systems. [[BIOS interrupt calls]] are not used by modern multitasking operating systems after they initially load.

In the 1990s, BIOS provided some [[protected mode]] interfaces for [[Microsoft Windows]] and [[Unix-like]] operating systems, such as [[Advanced Power Management]] (APM), [[Plug and Play BIOS]], [[Desktop Management Interface]] (DMI), [[VESA BIOS Extensions]] (VBE), [[e820]] and [[MultiProcessor Specification]] (MPS). Starting from the year 2000, most BIOSes provide [[Advanced Configuration and Power Interface|ACPI]], [[SMBIOS]], [[VBE]] and [[e820]] interfaces for modern operating systems.<ref>{{Cite web|title=What is ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface)? - Definition from WhatIs.com|url=https://searchwindowsserver.techtarget.com/definition/ACPI-Advanced-Configuration-and-Power-Interface|access-date=2020-09-18|website=SearchWindowsServer|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Changing hardware abstraction layer in Windows 2000 / XP – Smallvoid.com|date=15 January 2001 |url=http://smallvoid.com/article/winnt-hardware-abstraction-layer.html|access-date=2020-09-18|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=What is ACPI?|url=https://www.spo-comm.de/en/blognews/detail/article/News/detail/what-is-acpi-1/|access-date=2020-09-18|website=www.spo-comm.de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=lorihollasch|title=Support for headless systems - Windows drivers|url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/display/support-for-headless-systems|access-date=2020-12-05|website=docs.microsoft.com|language=en-us}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Memory Map (x86) - OSDev Wiki|url=https://wiki.osdev.org/Memory_Map_(x86)|access-date=2020-12-11|website=wiki.osdev.org}}</ref>

After [[operating systems]] load, the [[System Management Mode]] code is still running in SMRAM. Since 2010, BIOS technology is in a transitional process toward [[UEFI]].<ref name="Bradley" />