Patent ID: 7032108

Claim:
In a processing system having a processor, a memory system, a storage medium, and a communication medium, between the processor and the storage medium, and wherein the processing system is operable in a pre-execution environment in which a specified portion of the physical address space is used to map at least a portion of a basic input/output system (BIOS) and wherein the BIOS includes run time service routines that include service routines for a predefined set of peripheral devices, and wherein the specified portion contains RAM memory, a BIOS virtualization system comprising: an image of BIOS processor-executable instructions on the storage medium, and including at least some BIOS run time service logic and wherein the BIOS run time service logic includes logic for emulating at least one peripheral device from the predefined set of peripherals, said emulating logic using said communication medium; and processor-executable instructions that retrieve the BIOS image from the storage medium and store the BIOS image into the RAM memory such that the portion of BIOS is loaded into the specified portion of physical address space.