[OpenBIOS] l440gx+ nvram writing ...

[Ronald G. Minnich]

On Mon, 7 Feb 2000, David Christensen wrote:

> In case you're not aware, the SMI is the System Management Interrupt.  When
> an SMI is asserted, the CPU will enter SMM, System Management Mode.  

Yes, I've finally begun to realize this. 
> It is a
> special mode of the CPU that was originally designed to make it easier for
> the BIOS to perform power management functions.  The SMI is completely
> transparent to the OS and cannot be masked.  The code that is executed in
> SMM is stored in a special memory area called SMRAM (generally mapped at
> A0000h-BFFFFh) and cannot be accessed unless operating in SMM (there is
> usually a lock bit in Intel chipsets that is set and cannot be cleared
> without resetting the system, this is to protect the SMI handler from being
> modified).  The only way to modify the code in the SMI handler is to write
> your own BIOS.  


openbios to the rescue, I suppose. 

geez, this is awful stuff. I'll let you know where I get today. 

ron

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