The usual Bios in a PC is a set of program routines whose job is to 'bootstrap' the operating system -that is, to load part of it from disk when the machine is first booted up so that this part can then sort out the rest - and to manage system hardware such as disk drives and communication ports. ABios is the version used in IBM's PS/2 computers, which originally used the OS/2 operating system (though some are now shipped with other operating systems). OS/2, unlike DOS, doesn't actually require the Bios to manage the system hardware, but the Bios is retained, in the form of the ABios, to ensure Compatibility when running DOS programs. [Bios, DOS, IBM, MSDos, OS/2, PC, PS/2] Return