BIOS Setup

We have taken a quick look at the PCB design and functions of Foxconn A7DA 3.0 mainboard, because this solution doesn’t boast any unique peculiarities, everything is simple and clear. However, we intend to pay a little more attention to the mainboard BIOS. It is based on AMI microcode and looks pretty unique:

The first section we see is called “System Information”. In fact, it is none other but the traditional “Standard CMOS Features” section with some additional information added about the mainboard, processor, memory and network adapter.

“Green System Mode” section also looks just like a combination of “Power Management Setup” and “PC Health Status” sections.

I was pleasantly surprised that the mainboard reports not only the CPU core voltage but also, memory voltage and chipset North Bridge voltage. However, the memory voltage is set a little higher right from the start: to 1.8 V. It turned out to be a reporting error, which seems to have migrated from the boards with DDR2 SDRAM support, because this is the nominal voltage for DDR2. All other utilities reported about 1.65 V memory voltage, which is a standard setting for DDR3.

“Advanced BIOS Features” section retained its traditional name for some reason. Its functionality is exactly what it is supposed to be, there is nothing new or surprising here.

Judging by the name, “Fox Central Control Unit” should be some kind of global control center containing all settings that could be of interest to overclockers and enthusiasts. Something like “Ai Tweaker” on Asus mainboards, “Genie BIOS Setting” on DFI mainboards, or “MB Intelligent Tweaker” on Gigabyte. However, it didn’t quite work out this way. First, this section is split in several smaller subsections. Second, there are no options for memory and integrated graphics core configuring.

“Smart BIOS” sub-section serves mostly informational purposes, reporting the current operational system parameters.

“Smart Power LED” parameter allows you to disable the complex error reporting system. By default, the power LED on the system case will inform you of the existing issues using sophisticated blinking sequences.