7 terms
BIOS is the motherboard firmware that tests hardware at power-on, initializes components and hands control to the operating system loader.
Boot order is the firmware's prioritized list of devices and boot entries it tries, in sequence, to find and start an operating system loader.
A bootloader is the small program that firmware starts after power-on to locate, load and launch the operating system kernel from a storage device.
Firmware is low-level software stored in non-volatile memory on a device that controls its hardware directly and starts before any operating system.
POST, the power-on self-test, is the firmware routine that checks and initializes the processor, memory and key hardware before a computer loads its bootloader.
Secure Boot is a UEFI firmware feature that lets a PC start only bootloaders and drivers signed by trusted keys, blocking boot-level malware.
UEFI is the modern motherboard firmware interface that initializes hardware, runs boot loaders and replaces the legacy BIOS on current PCs and servers.