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This option is merely to select whether NumLock should be enabled or disabled by default and has no impact on performance or setup at all.

Gate A20 option (Fast)

The original 8088 CPU only had very little memory to cope with and therefore only needed 20 memory address lines. In order to access memory above 1 MB, the so-called Gate A 20 was added. The same architecture persists up to now and, therefore, the Gate A20 still needs to be addressed. In the original design the handling of the Gate A 20 was branched off the keyboard controller that needed to set the signal to low before the real Gate A20 could be inserted into the bus and the system memory can be accessed. Since this method by which the ANDING is performed is somewhat archaic, modern chipset have the option of addressing the Gate A20 directly from the core logic without need to wait for the for the keyboard controller / keyboard input. This method of bypassing the keyboard controller is faster and therefore should be preferred.

The settings are

• Normal: Gate A20 controlled by keyboard controller
• Fast: Gate A20 controlled by chipset core logic

The typematic rate setting is the rate at which the keyboard sends data to the system. In contrast to an old-fashioned typewriter, if a key is held down on a computer keyboard, the keyboard will signal to the BIOS that the key has been pressed repeatedly and generate multiple copies of the character. For most users, the default setting disabled will be adequate. If Typematic Rate Setting is enabled, it will allow access to two additional entries.

Typematic Rate (Characters / Second)

The Typematic Rate specifies how many times the same character will be generated in one second if the key is held down. The standard options range from 8 characters/sec to 30 characters/sec

Typematic Delay

Even a fast typist will, sometimes, keep the finger on the key a little longer than needed. Particularly, if a faster Typematic Rate is selected, this would constantly generate multiples of characters in the wrong place. Therefore, a delay function has been added to specify the time until repetition of the character starts. Standard settings are 250 msec to 1 sec, which means that it is possible to press down one key for one second until character acceleration starts.

Security Option

All current systems offer the option of adding a password for accessing the computer. The password can be effective at different levels. One possibility is to simply prevent booting of the computer, another possibility is to prevent access to the setup parameters. The latter will not prevent unauthorized use of the system, however, it is an effective measure against messing with the system parameters.

The Security Option relates to the options in the main menu Set Supervisor Password, Set User Password.

OS Select for DRAM > 64MB (Non-OS/2)

OS/2 requires a specific BIOS switch in order to access memory addresses above 64 MB system memory. Hardly anyone uses OS/2, so I won't go into further explanations.

Report No FDD For Win95 (No)

The original Windows95 requires the presence of a floppy. Unless the BIOS tells it to disregard the absence of the drive, it will generate an error message. For other operating systems as Win98 etc this field is without relevance.

Video BIOS Shadow (Disabled)

In old graphics cards (1 MB video memory), copying the video BIOS into the system memory could increase the graphics performance of the system. The only drawback is that the video BIOS will take up base memory addresses and, thus, possibly interfere with other devices because of resource overlapping.

For all modern graphics adapters, the setting should be disabled since there is no performance increase noted and the possibility to encounter errors because of occupying other necessary system resources increases.

System BIOS Shadow (Disabled)

Once the BIOS is loaded, there is no reason to shadow it in the main memory. Similar as with the Video BIOS, it will only occupy base memory addresses and, thus, make them unavailable for other system devices.

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