AwardBIOS (also known as Award Modular BIOS and later known as Phoenix - AwardBIOS after the Phoenix Technologies merge of the company) is a Personal Computer BIOS developed by Award Software in 1984.
Phoenix acquisition
On April 16, 1998, Phoenix Technologies acquired Award Software to create a $100M BIOS firm. It was completed on September 28 of the same year and both companies merged. As a result of the merge, Award Software went bankrupt, while Phoenix survived.
PhoenixNet controversy
In 2000, Phoenix Technologies developed a technology for AwardBIOS versions 4.51PGN and 6.00PGN, called PhoenixNet that integrates into the BIOS of motherboard. It received a major criticism due to being spyware.
This spyware however, also installs some bloated software once it detects an existing operating system and internet connection. Their services have been discontinued in late 2001, but there are probably few motherboards in 2002 that still have PhoenixNet built-in but may not work. After the service ended, some PC vendors have released BIOS updates for their motherboards that have PhoenixNet already to remove or disable the spyware.
List of known versions
| Version | Release date | POST screen | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| AwardBIOS 1.xx | 1984? | Not available | Confirmed existence by a file of a BIOS version database. No ROM files or pictures are available for it as of now. |
| AwardBIOS 2.xx | 1985 | 
|
|
| AwardBIOS 3.xx | 1987 | 
|
Siemens-Nixdorf fork exists. |
| AwardBIOS v4.00 | 1991 | Mostly used on motherboards with EISA expansion buses | |
| AwardBIOS v4.20/4.26/4.28/4.32 | 1992 | 4.26/4.28/4.32 might have been only used by Gateway 2000/Swan/Anigma. | |
| AwardBIOS v4.50 | 1993 | 
|
Not to be confused with EliteBIOS, early versions have blue POST screen while later versions have black EliteBIOS POST screen but with v4.50 version number. |
| AwardBIOS v4.50xx/v4.51xx/v4.60xx | 1994 | Codenamed "EliteBIOS". | |
| Award PowerBIOS | 1994 | 
|
Probably considered as AwardBIOS v5.00 by Award. |
| AwardBIOS v6.00PG | 1998 | 
|
Codenamed "Medallion". ASUS and Gigabyte forks of it exist. A sub-version called WorkstationBIOS also exists. |
