BIOS

The BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) is firmware contained in a computer's motherboard which is in charge of hardware initialization in the booting process and providing services to the operating system and programs running within. The first BIOS was invented as a pre-running program for CP/M. Currently, the IBM BIOS (made for the IBM PC) is the world standard. It has been revised many times due to limitations. A successor to BIOS is UEFI. BIOS is now called by some Legacy BIOS.

See also

Libreboot - A distribution of Coreboot which eliminates proprietary blobs completely

Coreboot - A FLOSS alternative to a BIOS, which includes proprietary blobs