AMI Hi-Flex BIOS: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 17:37, 23 June 2024

AMI Hi-Flex BIOS, commonly nicknamed "AMI Color BIOS" by enthusiasts (due to its colorful setup utility), is a version of AMIBIOS released by American Megatrends. Compared to its predecessor, the AMI Plus BIOS, it introduced an entirely new setup utility (with more options) and a new ROM identification string format (which would also be used for all newer AMIBIOS versions and earlier instances of Aptio, although with minor changes).

AMIDIAG, a system diagnostics tool whose limited version was shipped with some Plus BIOS ROMs, was no longer included with this version. Although some of AMIDIAG's features remained in the new setup utility.

Setup Utility

The new utility lists setup options in menus, with each menu containing related options on a single page to fit more of them. Unlike AMI Plus BIOS' grayscale utility, the new utility contains various color presets for customization (although some of them are grayscale), as seen below. The preset can be changed with the F2 and F3 keys on the keyboard.

Colour 1 (often default)
Colour 2
Colour 3
Colour 4
Colour 5
Colour 6
Colour 7
Colour 8
Colour 9
Colour 10 (default for early Intel fork)
Colour 11
Colour 12
Colour 13
Colour 14
Colour 15
Colour 16

Technical limitations

Lack of Logical Block Addressing (LBA) support

Similar to the AMI Plus BIOS, hard drives of up to 32 GB in capacity can be configured in the setup utility. However, due to the lack of LBA (Logical Block Addressing) in most revisions, only up to 504 MB can actually be utilized. Although, some late revisions of Hi-Flex BIOS support LBA. On these revisions, LBA can often be enabled in the Advanced CMOS Setup menu. Various workarounds also exist for this limitation, such as using Ontrack Disk Manager.

New ROM identification string format

As mentioned, Hi-Flex BIOS has introduced the string format that was in use for all newer versions of AMIBIOS and all versions Aptio until 2020 (when the string was finally removed), with only some slight changes over time.

C: Processor architecture, R: ROM size, MMMM: Manufacturer/OEM identification code, FFFFFFFF: BIOS feature identification (often 00101111), SSSSSS: BIOS compile date OR subcore release date, DDDDDDDD: BIOS identifier, Project: BIOS project ID (no maximum characters), K: Keyboard controller (KBC) ID

CR-VVVV-00MMMM-FFFFFFFF-SSSSSS-DDDDDDDD-Project-K

Note: The project ID section is only present on later cores of AMIBIOS 6 and later releases. The keyboard controller ID is also not used on AMIBIOS 07.00.xx, AMIBIOS 8 and Aptio.

Example string: 61-1108-001169-00101111-071595-440BX/ZX-1440B000-H

This string is for a 11.08 revision ("1108") 128 KB ("1") size AMIBIOS 6 ("071595", main subcore for it) for a motherboard for 686 architecture processors ("6") with Intel 440BX or 440ZX chipset ("440BX/ZX") and an AMIKEY-2 clone keyboard controller ("H") made by MSI ("1169").

For a list of codes for each field, click here.

Intel fork

Main page: List of BIOS and UEFI firmware used by Intel motherboards

Intel has forked AMI Hi-Flex BIOS core version 111192 and used it on most of their motherboards manufactured from 1993 to 1997 (when they switched to PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0 instead). Early versions of this fork are not much different from the original AMI version, while later versions had a lot more differences. This fork was also used by most OEMs that licensed Intel motherboards for their computers, although sometimes with their own branding and occasionally even their own setup utility (like with Dell and IBM).

Early POST screen (Intel Classic/PCI)
Early setup utility (Intel Classic/PCI)
New POST screen (Intel Classic/PCI ED)
New setup utility (Intel Classic/PCI ED)
Late POST screen in 8x19 font (Intel AP440FX)
Late setup utility in 8x19 font (Intel AP440FX)
Dell Dimension M166a POST screen (based on Intel Hannibal+ motherboard)
Dell Dimension M166a setup utility
AMBRA (IBM) DP60PCI POST screen (based on Intel Premiere/PCI ED)
IBM PS/ValuePoint P60 POST screen (based on Intel Premiere/PCI LP/LPX)
IBM PS/ValuePoint P60 setup utility

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-[[File:AMI Hi-Flex BIOS POST.png|thumb|A late Intel AMI Hi-Flex fork]]
+[[File:AMI Hi-Flex BIOS POST.png|thumb|The Hi-Flex BIOS POST screen]]
-AMI Hi-Flex BIOS, also known between enthusiasts as AMI Color BIOS due to it's colourful setup utility, is a version of [[AMIBIOS]] released by [[American Megatrends]]. Compared to [[AMI Plus BIOS]] (which it replaced), it introduced an entirely new setup utility, a longer, more detailed BIOS string format (which was used with slight changes until 2020 when the string was removed with newer releases of [[AMI Aptio]]), and more setup options. AMIDIAG, which a limited version of was included with some versions of AMI Plus BIOS, was completely removed from BIOS ROM with this version. Although, some of AMIDIAG's features remained in the new setup utility.
+AMI Hi-Flex BIOS, commonly nicknamed "AMI Color BIOS" by enthusiasts (due to its colorful setup utility), is a version of [[AMIBIOS]] released by [[American Megatrends]]. Compared to its predecessor, the [[AMI Plus BIOS]], it introduced an entirely new setup utility (with more options) and a new ROM identification string format (which would also be used for all newer AMIBIOS versions and earlier instances of [[AMI Aptio|Aptio]], although with minor changes).
+AMIDIAG, a system diagnostics tool whose limited version was shipped with some Plus BIOS ROMs, was no longer included with this version. Although some of AMIDIAG's features remained in the new setup utility.
 == Setup Utility ==
-The new setup utility introduced different menus for related settings, giving more space to store them. It also introduced 16 new colour schemes that can be toggled with F2/F3 keys on keyboard. The colour schemes look like the following:
+The new utility lists setup options in menus, with each menu containing related options on a single page to fit more of them. Unlike [[AMI Plus BIOS]]' grayscale utility, the new utility contains various color presets for customization (although some of them are grayscale), as seen below. The preset can be changed with the F2 and F3 keys on the keyboard.
-<gallery mode="packed" widths=90px heights=50px>
+<gallery mode="packed" widths="90px" heights="50px">
 File:AMI Hi-Flex BIOS setup (Colour 1).png|Colour 1 (often default)
 File:AMI Hi-Flex BIOS setup (Colour 2).png|Colour 2
@@ Line 24: / Line 26: @@
 == Technical limitations ==
-Like AMI Plus BIOS, hard drives of up to 32 GB in capacity can be configured on Hi-Flex BIOS. However, due to lack of LBA on most versions, it can only use up to 504 MB. Although, some late versions had LBA in the Advanced CMOS Setup menu through code forks or OEM modifications.
-== BIOS string ==
+=== Lack of Logical Block Addressing (LBA) support ===
+Similar to the AMI Plus BIOS, hard drives of up to 32 GB in capacity can be configured in the setup utility. However, due to the lack of LBA (Logical Block Addressing) in most revisions, only up to 504 MB can actually be utilized. Although, some late revisions of Hi-Flex BIOS support LBA. On these revisions, LBA can often be enabled in the Advanced CMOS Setup menu. Various workarounds also exist for this limitation, such as using Ontrack Disk Manager.
-As mentioned, Hi-Flex BIOS introduced the string format that was in use with all newer versions of AMIBIOS, with some slight changes over time.
+== New ROM identification string format ==
+As mentioned, Hi-Flex BIOS has introduced the string format that was in use for all newer versions of [[AMIBIOS]] and all versions [[AMI Aptio|Aptio]] until 2020 (when the string was finally removed), with only some slight changes over time.
 '''C:''' Processor architecture, '''R:''' ROM size, '''MMMM:''' Manufacturer/OEM identification code, '''FFFFFFFF:''' BIOS feature identification (often 00101111), '''SSSSSS:''' BIOS compile date OR subcore release date, '''DDDDDDDD:''' BIOS identifier, '''Project:''' BIOS project ID (no maximum characters), '''K:''' Keyboard controller (KBC) ID
@@ Line 34: / Line 38: @@
 <code>CR-VVVV-00MMMM-FFFFFFFF-SSSSSS-DDDDDDDD-Project-K</code>
-'''Note:''' The project ID section is only present on late AMIBIOS 6 and later releases. The keyboard controller ID is also not used since AMIBIOS 07.00.xx.
+'''Note:''' The project ID section is only present on later cores of AMIBIOS 6 and later releases. The keyboard controller ID is also not used on [[AMIBIOS 07.00.xx]], [[AMIBIOS 8]] and [[AMI Aptio|Aptio]].
 '''Example string''': 61-1108-001169-00101111-071595-440BX/ZX-1440B000-H
@@ Line 43: / Line 47: @@
 == Intel fork ==
-[[File:Intel AMI 111192 for AP440FX.png|thumb|A late Intel AMI Hi-Flex fork]]
+''Main page: [[List of BIOS and UEFI firmwares used by Intel motherboards|List of BIOS and UEFI firmware used by Intel motherboards]]''
-''Main page: [[List of BIOS and UEFI firmwares used by Intel motherboards]]''
-Intel has forked AMI Hi-Flex BIOS subcore 111192 and used it on most of their motherboards manufactured from 1993 to 1997. Early versions of this fork are not much different from the original AMI version, while later versions look quite different.
+[[wikipedia:Intel|Intel]] has forked AMI Hi-Flex BIOS core version 111192 and used it on most of their motherboards manufactured from 1993 to 1997 (when they switched to [[PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.x|PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0]] instead). Early versions of this fork are not much different from the original AMI version, while later versions had a lot more differences. This fork was also used by most OEMs that licensed Intel motherboards for their computers, although sometimes with their own branding and occasionally even their own setup utility (like with [[wikipedia:Dell|Dell]] and [[wikipedia:IBM|IBM]]).
+<gallery mode="packed">
+File:Monitor 1 20240511-232303-926.png|Early POST screen (Intel Classic/PCI)
+File:Monitor 1 20240511-232405-957.png|Early setup utility (Intel Classic/PCI)
+File:Monitor 1 20240511-232110-785.png|New POST screen (Intel Classic/PCI ED)
+File:Monitor 1 20240511-232136-662.png|New setup utility (Intel Classic/PCI ED)
+File:Intel AMI 111192 for AP440FX.png|alt=|Late POST screen in 8x19 font (Intel AP440FX)
+File:Intel AMI 111192 Late VGA setup.png|alt=|Late setup utility in 8x19 font (Intel AP440FX)
+File:Monitor 1 20240511-233429-145.png|Dell Dimension M166a POST screen (based on Intel Hannibal+ motherboard)
+File:Monitor 1 20240511-233441-286.png|Dell Dimension M166a setup utility
+File:Monitor 1 20240511-233517-067.png|AMBRA (IBM) DP60PCI POST screen (based on Intel Premiere/PCI ED)
+File:Monitor 1 20240511-233606-115.png|IBM PS/ValuePoint P60 POST screen (based on Intel Premiere/PCI LP/LPX)
+File:Monitor 1 20240511-233625-868.png|IBM PS/ValuePoint P60 setup utility
+</gallery>