Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS

From SoftHistory
The POST screen for Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS

Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS is a version of PhoenixBIOS developed by Phoenix Technologies. This version was the first to include a built-in setup utility. Along with the built-in setup utility, a more detailed memory test and error messages were also included.

Setup Utility

Two different setup utilities exist for this version. If setup was launched from an error prompt, an error log screen would be displayed for each POST error. Aside from these setup utilities, the Ax86 Setup Utility could also occasionally be seen with some later versions. However that is believed to be ported from Ax86 to ROM BIOS PLUS by OEMs.

Dell fork

Dell has forked Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS in late-80s and occasionally used it on motherboards used in their computers until the early-2010s. Many new features were added to this fork over time, such as Plug & Play and ACPI. This fork was used for a few more years for legacy BIOS boot for their servers however, with last known compile of the fork being from 2015.