ROM BIOS and the first MEG of memory

The following is the layout and contents of the first Meg of memory. As I get more information, I will update it accordingly.

Items that are new are marked in the notes column (02 Dec 1999)

Notes*	Offset (hex)	Size (dec)	Description
	0000	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 00h (division by zero)
	0004	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 01h (single step)
	0008	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 02h (Nonmaskable)
	000C	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 03h (Break point)
	0010	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 04h (overflow)
	0014	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 05h (print screen)
	0018	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 06h (invalid opcode)
	001C	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 07h (processor extension not available)
	0020	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 08h (clock tick (hardware))
	0024	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 09h (keyboard)
	0028	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 0Ah (LPT2)
	002C	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 0Bh (COM2)
	0030	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 0Ch (COM1)
	0034	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 0Dh (IRQ5)
	0038	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 0Eh (floppy disk attention)
	003C	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 0Fh (printer control)
	0040	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 10h (video)
	0044	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 11h (equipment list)
	0048	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 12h (memory size)
	004C	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 13h (disk BIOS)
	0050	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 14h (communications BIOS)
	0054	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 15h (system BIOS)
	0058	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 16h (keyboard BIOS)
	005C	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 17h (printer BIOS)
	0060	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 18h (ROM Basic Language)
	0064	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 19h (boot-strap)
	0068	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 1Ah (Time and Date)
	006C	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 1Bh (Ctrl Break)
	0070	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 1Ch (Clock tick)
	0074	4	Holds address pointing to control parameters
	0078	4	Holds address pointing to floppy disk drive parameter table
	007C	4	Holds address pointing to second half of character table (128 - 255)
	0080	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 20h (terminate)
	0084	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 21h (MS-DOS function calls)
	0088	4	Holds address pointing to MS-DOS program terminate routine
	008C	4	Holds address pointing to MS-DOS keyboard-break handler
	0090	4	Holds address pointing to MS-DOS critical-error handler
	0094	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 25h (Absolute disk read)
	0098	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 26h (Absolute disk write)
	009C	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 27h (MS-DOS TSR)
	00A0	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 28h (MS-DOS IDLE)
	00A4	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 29h (Fast CON output)
	00A8	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 2Ah (NetBIOS)
	00A8	12	Interrupt Vector for INT 2Bh-2Dh (reserved)
	00B8	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 2Eh (Execute)
	00BC	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 2Fh (Multitask)
	00C0	4	(NOT A VECTOR!) - DOS 1+ - FAR JMP instruction
	00C4	4	overwritten by CP/M jump instruction in INT 30
	00C8	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 32h (user)
	00CC	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 33h (Mouse)
	00D0	44	Interrupt Vector for INT 34h-3Eh (FLOATING POINT EMULATION)
	00FC	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 3Fh (Overlay manager)
	0100	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 40h (Disk handler)
	0104	4	Holds address pointing to Parameter table for first hard drive
	0108	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 42h (video)
	010C	4	Holds address pointing to video graphics characters (EGA, PS/2s)
	0110	4	Holds address pointing to video graphics characters (PCjr)
	0114	4	Z100/Acron
	0118	4	Holds address pointing to Parameter table for second hard drive
	011C	4	Z100/Acorn/Western Digital/SQL Base
	0120	4	KEYBOARD (PCjr)
	0124	4	SYSTEM DATA (PCjr)
	0128	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 4Ah (USER ALARM HANDLER)
	012C	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 4Bh (IBM SCSI interface)
	0130	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 4Ch (Z100/Acorn/TI)
	0134	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 4Dh (Z100)
	0138	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 4Eh (Z100/TI)
	013C	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 4Fh (Common Access Method SCSI)
	0140	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 50h (IRQ0 relocated by software)
	0144	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 51h (IRQ1 relocated by software)
	0148	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 52h (IRQ2 relocated by software)
	014C	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 53h (IRQ3 relocated by software)
	0150	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 54h (IRQ4 relocated by software)
	0154	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 55h (IRQ5 relocated by software)
	0158	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 56h (IRQ6 relocated by software)
	015C	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 57h (IRQ7 relocated by software)
	0160	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 58h (IRQ8/0 relocated by software)
	0164	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 59h (IRQ9/1 relocated by software)
	0168	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 5Ah (IRQ10/2 relocated by software)
	016C	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 5Bh (IRQ11/3 relocated by software)
	0170	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 5Ch (IRQ12/4 relocated by software)
	0174	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 5Dh (IRQ13/5 relocated by software)
	0178	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 5Eh (IRQ14/6 relocated by software)
	017C	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 5Fh (IRQ15/7 relocated by software)
	0180	28	Interrupt Vector for INT 60h-66h (reserved for user interrupt)
	019C	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 67h (LIM Expanded Memory Manager)
	01A0	16	Interrupt Vector for INT 68h-6Bh (reserved for user interrupt)
	01B0	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 6Ch (DECnet DOS network scheduler)
	01B4	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 6Dh (VGA internal)
	01B8	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 6Eh (DECnet DOS)
	01BC	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 6Fh (Novell NetWare, MS Windows 3.0)
	01C0	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 70h (CMOS real-time clock)
	01C4	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 71h (redirected to int 0A)
	01C8	8	Interrupt Vector for INT 72h-73h (IRQ10-11 reserved)
	01D0	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 74h (IRQ12 Pointing device)
	01D4	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 75h (IRQ13 math coprocessor exception)
	01D8	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 76h (IRQ14 Hard disk controller)
	01DC	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 77h (IRQ15 reserved)
	01E0	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 78h (DOS extenders?)
	01E4	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 79h (reserved for user interrupt)
	01E8	4	Interrupt Vector for INT 7Ah (Novell NetWare)
	01E8	20	Interrupt Vector for INT 7Bh-7Fh (reserved for user interrupt)
	0200	24	Interrupt Vector for INT 80h-85h (reserved for BASIC)
	0218	420	Interrupt Vector for INT 86h-EEh (reserved for BASIC)
	03BC	4	Interrupt Vector for INT EFh (BASIC - orig. INT 09 vector)
	03C0	4	Interrupt Vector for INT F0h (BASIC - orig. INT 08 vector)
	03C4	52	Interrupt Vector for INT F1h-FDh (reserved for user interrupt)
	03F8	8	Interrupt Vector for INT FEh-FFh (AT/XT286/PS50+)
Remember that 0000:0400h = 0040:0000h
	0400	2	COM1 I/O base address (set to 0 if none found)
	0402	2	COM2 I/O base address (set to 0 if none found)
	0404	2	COM3 I/O base address (set to 0 if none found)
	0406	2	COM4 I/O base address (set to 0 if none found)
	0408	2	LPT1 I/O base address (set to 0 if none found)
	040A	2	LPT2 I/O base address (set to 0 if none found)
	040C	2	LPT3 I/O base address (set to 0 if none found)
	040E	2	LPT4 I/O base address (set to 0 if none found)
		2	(if extended BIOS on system) Segment address of Extended BIOS Data Area (9FC0:0000h)
	0410	2	equipment list reported by interrupt 11h (see figure 1)
	0412	1	PCjr - Infrared Keyboard Link Error
	0413	2	usable memory size in kilobytes (interrupt 12h)
			Usually set to 0280h. If less, then denotes 640k-difference=size of Extended BIOS Data Area at (9FC0:0000h)
	0415	2	(AT+) Error codes from the BIOS manufacturer
		2	(PC,XT) Adapter Memory Size
	0417	2	keyboard status bits (see figure 2)
	0419	1	Alternate Keypad entry
	041A	2	points to current head of keyboard buffer at 0040:001Eh
	041C	2	points to current tail of keyboard buffer at 0040:001Eh
	041E	32	keyboard buffer - used as sixteen 2-byte entries
	043E	1	indicates whether a floppy drive should be re calibrated
	043F	1	floppy drive motor status (bites 0-3)
			bit 0 = drive 0, if set - drive motor running
			bit 1 = drive 1, if set - drive motor running, etc.
	0440	1	floppy drive motor status. The value in this byte is
			decremented with every tick of the system clock.
			When the value returns 0, the BOIS turns off the motor
	0441	1	floppy drive motor status. status code returned by the
			ROM BIOS from the most recent disk operation
	0442	7	floppy drive controller status
	0449	1	current video mode
	044A	2	max number of chars in a row of text
	044C	2	number of bytes needed to display the screen (text=80x25)
	044E	2	offset of current display page
	0450	16	8 words, each giving the cursor location of each page
	0460	2	size of current cursor
	0462	1	current display page
	0463	2	port address of the hardware display controller chip
	0465	1	current setting of the display mode-register of the MDA and CGA
	0466	1	current setting of the CGA's CRT color register
	0467	5	cassette tape control
	046C	4	master clock count (long integer) 0 = midnight and increments until a 24 hour equiv.
	0470	1	not 0 = passed midnight
	0471	1	if bit 7 is set, ctrl-break was pressed
	0472	2	set to 1234h after initial power up telling a warm boot to skip mem check
	0474	4	floppy and hard disk control
	0478	4	contains a time-out value for the respective parallel ports
	047C	4	contains a time-out value for the respective RS-232 serial ports
	0480	2	points at the start of the keyboard buffer area
	0482	2	points at the end of the keyboard buffer area
	0484	1	this value is one less than the number of character rows displayed on the screen
	0485	2	height, in scan lines, of characters on the screen
	0487	4	Amount of video RAM available
			Initial setting of the EGA configuration switches, as well as other misc video status info.
	048B	11	control and status information regarding the floppy and hard disk drives
	0496	2	data area used to support the 101-key keyboard
	0498	9	real time clock control
	04A1	1	LANA DMA channel flags
	04A2	2	Status of LANA 0,1
	04A4	4	Saved hard disk interrupt vector
	04A8	4	(EGA and VGA) contain segmented address of a table of video parameters and overrides
	04AC	8	(reserved)
	04B4	1	Keyboard NMI control flags (convertible)
	04B5	4	Keyboard Break pending flags (convertible)
	04B9	1	Port 60h single byte Queue (convertible)
	04BA	1	Scan code for last key (convertible)
	04BB	1	NMI Buffer head pointer (convertible)
	04BC	1	NMI Buffer tail pointer (convertible)
	04BD	16	NMI scan code Buffer (convertible)
	04CD	1	unknown
	04CE	2	Day Counter (convertible)
	04D0	16	unknown
	04F0	16	intra-application communications area (ICA)
			ie: known area where one app can communicate with another app.
			(not used much because of its small size)
Remember that 0000:0500h = 0050:0000h
	0500	1	status of a print-screen operation
			00h - OK
			01h - a print-screen operation currently in progress
			FFh - error occurred during a print-screen operation
	0501	3	Used by BASIC
	0504	1	if only 1 floppy installed, this byte indicates which drive letter it is using (a or b)
			00h - acting as drive a:
			01h - acting as drive b:
	0505	10	POST work area
	050F	1	BASIC shell flag (2 if currently in shell)
	0510	2	holds ROM Basics default DS value (DO NOT CHANGE)
	0512	4	segment offset address of Basic's clock-tick interrupt handler
	0516	4	address for ROM Basic's Break-key-handling routine
	051A	4	address for ROM Basic's floppy disk error-handling routine
new	0520	2	DOS Dynamic Storage ???
new	0522	14	DOS Diskette Initialization Table ???
new	0530	4	MODE command ???
	0534	206	unknown
Remember that 0000:0600h = 0060:0000h
	0600	256	scratch space used during DOS 2+ boot up
Remember that 0000:0700h = 0070:0000h
	DOS 2+
	0700	256	IO.SYS LOAD ADDRESS
	DOS 5+
	0700	25	ORIGINAL INTERRUPT VECTORS 10h,13h,15h,19h,1Bh
			Each value is stored as a BYTE for the interrupt number followed by a DWORD for the vector
	0719	231	unknown
Remember that 0000:0800h = 0080:0000h
	0800	102	80286 CPU - LOADALL WORKSPACE
			On the 80286 (unlike 80386), the state buffer from which the LOADALL instruction loads all internal registers is hardwired to physical address 000800h Several versions 3.x of MS-DOS leave an empty space at offset 100h in IO.SYS (which is loaded at 0070h:0000h) so that HIMEM.SYS can use LOADALL on 80286 machines without having to save/restore the area of memory that LOADALL uses
	0866	154	unknown
Remember that 0000:0900h = 0090:0000h
	0900	653,056	DOS (COMMAND.COM, etc., User Memory)
9FC0h:0000h - If your system has Extended BIOS Data Area (see 0040:000Eh and :0013h above)
	0000	1	Size of Extended BIOS Data Area in 1k blocks
	0002	21	unknown
	0017	1	Number of POST error entries
	0018	10	Error Log for above
	0022	4	Mouse Driver Device Far Call
	0026	1	Mouse Flags 1
	0027	1	Mouse Flags 2
	0028	8	Mouse Data
	0030	9	unknown
	0039	2	Watch Dog Timer
	003B	2	unknown
	003D	16	Hard Disk 0 Parameter Table
	004D	16	Hard Disk 1 Parameter Table
	005D	11	unknown
	0068	1	Cache Control
	0069	5	unknown
	006E	1	Repeat Rate of Keyboard
	006F	1	Delay until Keyboard repeats
	0070	1	Number of Hard Drives attached
	0071	1	DMA channel Hard Drive
	0072	1	Hard Drive interrupt status
	0073	1	Hard Drive operation flags
	0074	4	Old interrupt 76h vector pointer
	0078	1	Hard Drive DMA type
	0079	1	(Hard Drive) status of last operation
	007A	1	(Hard Drive) timeout value
	007B	3	unknown
	007E	16	Hard Drive controller return status words
	008E	89	unknown
	00E7	1	Diskette Drive type
	00E8	4	unknown
	00EC	1	Hard Drive Parameters Loaded
	00ED	1	unknown
	00EE	1	CPU Family ID
	00EF	1	CPU Stepping
	00F0	39	unknown
	0117	2	Keyboard ID
	0119	1	unknown
	011A	1	Non-BIOS Interrupt 18h Flag
	011B	2	unknown
	011D	4	User Interrupt 18h Far Pointer
	0121	735	unknown
A000:0000h
	0000	65,536	Graphics Video memory (EGA and above)
B000:0000h
	0000	32,768	Graphics area for EGA and up
	8000	4096	Page 0 - 80x25 16 color and mono (B800:0000)
	9000	4096	Page 1 - 80x25 16 color and mono (B800:1000)
	A000	4096	Page 2 - 80x25 16 color and mono (B800:2000)
	B000	4096	Page 3 - 80x25 16 color and mono (B800:3000)
	C000	4096	Page 4 - 80x25 16 color and mono (B800:4000)
	D000	4096	Page 5 - 80x25 16 color and mono (B800:5000)
	E000	4096	Page 6 - 80x25 16 color and mono (B800:6000)
	F000	4096	Page 7 - 80x25 16 color and mono (B800:7000)
C000:0000h
	0000	65,536	additional ROM-BIOS & video memory
D000:0000h
	0000	65,536	ROM cartridges
E000:0000h
	0000	65,536	ROM cartridges
F000:0000h
	0000	32,768	IBM PC ROM BASIC
	E000	8,192	ORIGINAL IBM PC ROM BIOS
	FFF0	5	RESET JUMP
	FFF5	8	ASCII BIOS DATE
	FFFD	1	OFTEN USED TO ENSURE CORRECT BIOS CHECKSUM
	FFFE	1	MACHINE TYPE CODE
	FFFF	1	unknown
Total memory
0000:0000—F000:FFFF		1,048,576	16 x 65,536 = 1 meg

*Notes: none at this time

-------------------------- Figures ---------------------------

****************************************************************
       bit
FEDCBA98 76543210  Described
XX...... ........   Number of printers installed
..X..... ........   (reserved)
...X.... ........   set if game adapter installed
....XXX. ........   Number of RS-232 serial ports
.......X ........   (reserved)
........ XX......   +1 = number of floppy drives (see bit 0) 00 - 1 drive, 01 - 2 drives, etc.
........ ..XX....   Initial video mode
                      01 - 40 column color
                      10 - 80 column color
                      11 - monochrome
                      00 - none of the above
........ ....XX..   For PC w/64k motherboard
                      Amount of system board RAM
                      00 - 16k,01 - 32k, 10 - 48k, 11 - 64k
                    For PC/AT: not used
                    For PS/2:
                      Bit 3 not used
                      Bit 2 - pointing device installed
........ ......X.   set if math co processor installed
........ .......X   set if any floppy drives installed
                      if set, see bits 6 and 7
****************************************************************
FIGURE 1:   equipment list word at 0000:0410h



****************************************************************
  bits
76543210  Described
0000:0417h
X....... insert state: (1 = active, 0 = inactive)
.X...... caps lock:
..X..... num lock:
...X.... scroll lock:
....X... set if alt pressed
.....X.. set if ctrl pressed
......X. set if left shift pressed
.......X set if right shift pressed

0000:0418h
X.......   set if insert pressed
.X......   set if caps lock pressed
..X.....   set if num lock pressed
...X....   set if scroll lock pressed
....X...   hold state active (ctrl-num lock or pause pressed)
.....X..   system request pressed
......X.   left alt pressed
.......X   right alt pressed
****************************************************************
FIGURE 2:   Keyboard status bits at 0000:0417h, lo order bits are set
              only while a corresponding key is pressed