AwardBIOS

AwardBIOS, also known as Award Modular BIOS and Phoenix - AwardBIOS, was a BIOS formerly developed by Award Software, then by Phoenix Technologies as a result of the Award - Phoenix Merge that happened in 1998. AwardBIOS was developed from 1984 (most likely even earlier) until June 30, 2009, when Phoenix announced the discontinuation of Award-line of products (including AwardBIOS and AwardCore). Although, some companies like Gigabyte kept on using their forked AwardBIOS code even way after that date.

AwardBIOS v1.xx (1984 - 1987?)
AwardBIOS v1.xx is the earliest known release of AwardBIOS, probably developed in around 1984. Unfortunately there are no any dumps or pictures of it yet, so it's unknown what it looks like at all or what features it has. However, according to a wide list of BIOS file names on the "BIOSSIG.DBA" file of The Programmer Corner's BIOS32X.ZIP diagnostics collection, a version of it for 386 processors called "386 BIOS V1.10" was compiled with 1987 copyright. Even though that specific version has 1987 copyright, AwardBIOS v1.xx's most other versions must be older than AwardBIOS v2.xx (assuming it was most likely compiled for other processors as well) because AwardBIOS v2.xx also has some releases compiled for 386 that has newer "386 BIOS V2.xx" version number. So the 1987 Copyright V1.10 is likely an exception.

Based on how AwardBIOS v2.xx is, AwardBIOS v1.xx most likely lacked a built-in Setup Utility and had a plain look like v2.xx.

AwardBIOS v2.xx (1985 - 1987)
AwardBIOS v2.xx is a release of AwardBIOS. It was developed from 1985 to 1987. As BIOSes of that era did not contain a built-in Setup Utility, it doesn't contain one either.

AwardBIOS v2.xx has quite a lot of known instances however the most known instances are "XT BIOS v2.05", "286 BIOS v2.07" and "286 BIOS v2.0710", the former being designed for IBM XT compatible PCs and the latter two being designed for IBM AT compatible PCs.

AwardBIOS v2.xx is also the earliest known instance of AwardBIOS where the "EVALUATION ROM - NOT FOR SALE" line was used for evaluation versions that were not meant to be sold alongside with motherboards or computers on sale.

XT BIOS v2.05 is also the only known version of AwardBIOS to have IBM BIOS-like error codes such as "301" (which means "Keyboard error").

Here is a list of all known instances, which most were found on the "BIOSSIG.DBA" file of The Programmer Corner's BIOS32X.ZIP diagnostics collection:

AwardBIOS 3.xx (1987 - 1991)
AwardBIOS 3.xx is the third main version of AwardBIOS and the earliest known version to include a built-in setup utility. Earliest known version of it was developed in 1987, just around the time when other BIOSes started including built-in Setup Utilities (such as AMI and Phoenix).

This version has a lot of different variants and it's look and the Setup Utility may change depending on the version or the OEM/motherboard manufacturer, it also has quite a lot of different names, but in general, it's named either "(processor) Modular BIOS Version (version number)" (example: 386 Modular BIOS Version CA3.04a or 286 Modular BIOS Version 3.03GS) or "(processor) BIOS Version (version number)" (example: 80486 BIOS Version 3.20). The latter could also have been just a Siemens OEM thing, as it was only seen on Siemens OEM boards with AwardBIOS 3.xx for now, however this can't be confirmed. Also, in some rare cases, the processor model may not be in the name. However this is a very rare case and it has been only seen on a few examples of AwardBIOS 3.xx.

Known versions of AwardBIOS 3.xx are listed below:



Setup Utilities
Almost all AwardBIOS 3.xx BIOSes have the yellow - cyan "AWARD SOFTWARE CMOS SETUP" utility, with the exception of the Siemens Nixdorf D824's (and probably other Siemens computers with Award 3.xx from around that era as well) Setup Utility. It's unknown if it's the Custom Setup Utility Siemens used or if it was just a very late Setup Utility made by Award for later 3.xx BIOSes. However, it is likely the former as the D824's Setup Utility doesn't mention Award anywhere.

The generic AwardBIOS 3.xx setup utility had an option for a Black & White colour scheme which could be switched by pressing the F2 key while in Setup. However this does not entirely change the Setup Utility color even when CMOS is saved and once the computer is reset the Setup is back in the default colourful scheme. Also, the possible Siemens-fork Setup Utility does not have this option at all.

AwardBIOS v4.20 (1991 - 1992)
AwardBIOS v4.20, also known as Award Modular BIOS v4.20, is the earliest known release of the AwardBIOS v4.xx series, with the earliest instance being compiled in 1991.

It has an entirely new diagnostics screen and a Setup Utility. Both by default are in mostly blue, although like with AwardBIOS 3.xx, the Setup Utility color can be temporarily changed to Black & White by pressing the "F2" key while in Setup. However, same as AwardBIOS 3.xx, this only applies once, and when the computer is reset it reverts back to the default colour scheme even when CMOS is saved.

Also, with this version, the entire "compiling different versions for each processor family" development scheme has ended (just like with other BIOSes from around this era) and the regular AwardBIOS could be compiled for all compatible processors and chipsets without having to compile different versions for each processor or chipset. Therefore, this BIOS was only called as "AwardBIOS v4.20" or "Award Modular BIOS v4.20" unlike previous versions.

The detected Processor model (and if any installed aside the built-in one of DX series of CPUs, the Co-Processor) is indicated below the "Award Modular BIOS v4.20" text.

AwardBIOS v4.50 (1993)
Not to be confused with AwardBIOS v4.50x/4.51x/4.60x (1994 - 2017)

AwardBIOS v4.50 is a version of AwardBIOS that was compiled in around 1993. It was not used on many boards, as it was quickly replaced by the newer v4.50x in 1994.

AwardBIOS v4.50 is the earliest known version of AwardBIOS with the classic Award setup utility, a proper colour toggle (that actually saves colour settings once the CMOS is saved, unlike earlier versions) with 16 different colour options, and the ability to customize colour of the diagnostics screen (depending on the board, by either changing the setup colour or by editing the BIOS file with using a tool such as Award Modbin and changing the "Post default color value" option.

Other than these new features and the new setup utility, it's identical to AwardBIOS v4.20.

AwardBIOS v4.50x/4.51x/4.60x "EliteBIOS" (1994 - 2017)
AwardBIOS v4.50x/4.51x/4.60x, codenamed "EliteBIOS" (except for v4.50G) and commonly referred to as "the Energy Star BIOS" (along with AwardBIOS v6.00x), was a major version of AwardBIOS first compiled in 1994. As a note, AwardBIOS v4.60x is rare and so far has been only found on some Acer/AOpen and FIC motherboards.

Unlike v4.20 and v4.50, these versions feature a black POST screen with grey text (the colours for the POST screen cannot be changed, even with Award Modbin) with usually an Energy Star logo (referred to as "EPA" in the AwardBIOS code) on the top right to indicate the power saving features of the motherboard it's compiled for and it's Energy Star energy efficiency certificate, although the EPA could've been optionally removed or replaced with an another logo by OEMs or motherboard manufacturers. The EPA would also make a disappearing animation after POST test on some versions, although this feature was only present in a few versions of AwardBIOS. The Setup Utility was also slightly changed with this version, the empty bar above the "ROM (expansion slots) BIOS (motherboard ID)" label was removed and some more features such as Low Level Disk Format Utility (only enabled on some boards) were added. Plug & Play (PnP) support and energy saving features were also added with these versions, although the former was only present on boards with the "P" feature flag in version name (see below for more details).

The AwardBIOS v4.50x was also the first version to introduce BIOS feature flags, such as "v4.50PG" ("P" for Plug & Play support and "G" or "Green" for energy saving features) or "v4.50G" (v4.50 without Plug & Play support but with energy saving features). The below is a list of known feature flags and their meanings. So far, all known v4.50x/4.51x/4.60x BIOSes have the "G" (Green) feature flag:

On very early EliteBIOS releases, the "G" flag would come before the "P" flag, resulting into "v4.50GP" being a valid release. However, within later releases v4.50GP was renamed to v4.50PG.

In 1998, EliteBIOS was succeeded by AwardBIOS v6.00x (codenamed "Medallion"), although until around 2000 most manufacturers kept on using EliteBIOS especially with the release of newer chipsets due to most newer chipsets (such as all Pentium 4 chipsets and Pentium III/later Pentium II chipsets starting with the i815 series, though this may have happened as early as i810 boards) dropping support for EliteBIOS. Also, some 440BX chipset based SBCs (Single Board Computers) manufactured by AAEON used v4.51PG in 2017.

PhoenixNet
Following the Award Software - Phoenix Technologies merge of 1998, Phoenix released PhoenixNet in around the year 2000, an add-on for Award EliteBIOS and v6.00xx (Medallion). PhoenixNet was a feature built into the BIOS that would offer to install various software whenever a compatible version of Windows (Windows 9x?) is installed and in some cases, change the default home and search pages to promoted pages set by the OEM or the motherboard manufacturer. PhoenixNet also included a new graphical POST screen, which could be modified by OEMs and motherboard manufacturers to include their logos. Due to heavy criticism, Phoenix discontinued PhoenixNet somewhere in 2001 (see below for more details).

Privacy concerns
PhoenixNet was heavily criticized by users for attempting to install software without the user's permission and attempting to connect to the internet using the said software. It was also criticized for attempting to change the home and search page on some occasions.

Performance issues
PhoenixNet was also claimed to drop the computer performance by 40% compared to older BIOSes without PhoenixNet.

PhoenixNet forcing claims
It was claimed that Phoenix would force some motherboard manufacturers to include PhoenixNet within AwardBIOS and that motherboard manufacturers had little-to-no control over it.

Award PowerBIOS (1994 - 1996?)
Award PowerBIOS is a rare version of AwardBIOS that was made for embedded computer systems such as single board computers (SBCs). Not much is known about it, except for the fact that it was used on various embedded computer boards. The earliest known instance is from 1994, while the latest is from 1996. Only two known compiles of this BIOS exist so far, one for the PowerPico chipset, and other by Siemens for the 430HX chipset.

Award PowerBIOS was considered as AwardBIOS v5.00 by Award Software, therefore the next version of AwardBIOS skipped v5.00 and became v6.00PG.

AwardBIOS v6.00x (1998 - late 2010s)
AwardBIOS v6.00x, also known as Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00x and codenamed "Medallion", was the final major version of AwardBIOS and was released in late 1998, though it was limited to certain OEM boards until late-1999/early 2000s when it gained more traction. Due to the company merge with Phoenix Technologies, this proved to be the final major version of AwardBIOS known to exist. Due to its very long lifespan, numerous iterations and updates were added over the years to accommodate for new chipset features, but the version remained the same. Phoenix provided support for v6.00 until June 30, 2009, when support was discontinued.

The colour toggle in the BIOS setup was removed within this version, although some manufacturers like Abit sometimes still customized the Setup Utility colour even with this version.



PhoenixNet
Like AwardBIOS v4.5x, PhoenixNet was also added to AwardBIOS v6.00PG in some occasions. Like the PhoenixNet addition for v4.5x, PhoenixNet for v6.00PG was also criticised for the same reasons the older PhoenixNet was criticised for (refer to PhoenixNet for v4.50x/4.51x/4.60x on this same page).

The 6.00PG PhoenixNet changed the POST screen appearance slightly, including the EnergyStar logo, and a link for the PhoenixNet site has been added.

Other than that, nothing else was changed about PhoenixNet with this version.

Forks
At least two major forks were created from this version of AwardBIOS due to its long lifespan.

ASUS' fork (Award Medallion BIOS v6.0) (1999 - 2003?)
Not to be confused with the codename of Award v6.00x (also "Medallion")

This version of v6.00 was not entirely a true version of it, instead being more a hybrid between the older 4.5x/4.60 and 6.00. Strings in the older style were used, but some features from the latter were brought over. It also contained a PhoenixBIOS-like setup utility instead of the classic Award setup utility. This fork can easily be spotted as "Award Medallion BIOS v6.0", although ASUS was not the only company that used the Medallion naming for their BIOS. Due to both the fork being named after the codename of v6.00x, it having v4.5x/4.60 style string and due to PhoenixBIOS-like setup utility, there is a possible chance that the fork might be based on a very early development release of regular v6.00x. Although there is no evidence to confirm this for now as there are no other known development releases of AwardBIOS v6.00x. One of the first motherboards to contain this fork was the ASUS P3B-F from July 1999, a high-end 440BX board optimized for Pentium III processors; while ASUS maintained this fork until at some point in the early 2000s, after which they switched to AMIBIOS for most of their new motherboards (with some notable exceptions including their various nForce boards, which used regular Phoenix - AwardBIOS instead of the Medallion fork).

Gigabyte's fork (2000? - 2017)
Gigabyte has forked AwardBIOS v6.00PG code in early-2000s and used it on almost all their motherboards until 2012, although they still kept on using it on some of their later AM3+ boards until 2017.

Due to the discontinuation of AwardBIOS at the end of June 2009, this left Gigabyte (one of the last remaining major motherboard manufacturers using them by the time of its discontinuation) without their main provider of BIOS chips. As generic x86_64-based machines were not expected to transition to UEFI until 2012, Gigabyte kept on using their fork for new boards of theirs until the UEFI transition happened, serving as maintenance during this transitional period. Due to Intel's newer chipset guidelines requiring UEFI, the fork was discontinued in 2011 for high-end Intel chipset and somewhere in 2012 for all Intel chipset boards, however some later AMD FX boards from Gigabyte continued to make use of this fork of AwardBIOS even after the transition, with compile dates as late as 2017 (namely for budget AM3+ boards using AMD's FX processors).

Notably, some later versions of this fork adds support for a feature known as Hybrid EFI, which allows for drives larger than 2 TB; breaking past traditional BIOS limitations. Other features, such as TouchBIOS and DualBIOS, were also present within some versions.