BIOS interrupt calls are a facility that DOS programs, and some other software such as boot loaders, use to invoke the BIOS's facilities. Some operating systems also use the BIOS to probe and initialize hardware resources during their early stages of booting.
Invoking an interrupt
Invoking an interrupt can be done using the INT x86 assembly instruction. For example, to print a character to the screen using BIOS interrupt 0x10 we perform the following x86 assembly instructions:
Low Level Disk Services; installed by the BIOS or operating system; called by software programs
AH
Description
00h
Reset Disk Drives
01h
Check Drive Status
02h
Read Sectors From Drive
03h
Write Sectors To Drive
04h
Verify Sectors On Drive
05h
Format Track On Drive
08h
Get Drive Parameters
09h
Init Fixed Drive Parameters
0Ch
Seek To Specified Track
0Dh
Reset Fixed Disk Controller
15h
Get Drive Type
16h
Get Floppy Drive Media Change Status
14h
Routines for communicating via the serial port. Used by software programs.
AH
Description
00h
Serial Port Initialization
01h
Transmit Character
02h
Receive Character
03h
Status
15h
Miscellaneous (System services support routines)
AH
AL
AX
Description
4Fh
Keyboard Intercept
83h
Event Wait
84h
Read Joystick
85h
Sysreq Key Callout
86h
Wait
87h
Move Block
88h
Get Extended Memory Size
C0h
Get System Parameters
C1h
Get Extended BIOS Data Area Segment
C2h
Pointing Device Functions
E8h
01h
E801h
Get Extended Memory Size(Newer function, since 1994). Gives results for memory size above 64 Mb.
E8h
20h
E820h
Query System Address Map. The information returned from e820 supersedes what is returned from the older AX=E801h and AH=88h interfaces.
16h
Implemented by the BIOS or operating system. Provides routines to be called by software programs which communicate with the keyboard.
AH
Description
00h
Read Character
01h
Read Input Status
02h
Read Keyboard Shift Status
10h
Read Character Extended
11h
Read Input Status Extended
12h
Read Keyboard Shift Status Extended
17h
Print Services - used by software programs to communicate with the printer
AH
Description
00h
Print Character to Printer
01h
Initialize Printer
02h
Check Printer Status
18h
Execute Cassette BASIC: True IBM computers contain BASIC in the ROM to be interpreted and executed by this routine in the event of a boot failure (called by the BIOS)
19h
After POST this interrupt is used by BIOS to load the operating system.
1Ah
Real Time Clock Services - called by software programs to communicate with the RTC
On MS-DOS systems IO.SYS hooks INT 13 for floppy disc change detection, tracking formatting calls, correcting DMA boundary errors, working around problems in IBM's ROM BIOS "01/10/84" with model code 0xFC before the first call. The interrupt vector 0x13 may point to a software hook rather than the BIOS routine. Something which some Bulgarian viruses are known to use against virus monitoring software. [ 1]
INT 18h traditionally jumped to an implementation of BASIC stored in ROM. This call would typically be invoked if the BIOS was unable to identify any bootable volumes on startup. (At the time the original IBM PC was released in 1981, the BASIC in ROM was a key feature.) As time went on and BASIC was no longer shipped on all PCs, this interrupt would simply display an error message indicating that no bootable volume was found (famously, "No ROM BASIC", or more self-explanatory messages in later BIOS versions); in other BIOS versions it would prompt the user to insert a bootable volume and press a key, and then after the user did so it would loop back to the bootstrap loader to try booting again.
BIOS interrupt calls are a facility that DOS programs, and some other software such as boot loaders, use to invoke the BIOSs facilities. Some operating systems