American Megatrends

Infobox_Company
company_name = American Megatrends, Inc.
company_
company_type = Private
foundation = S. Shankar, (1985)" [http://www.ami.com/about/corporate.cfm Corporate Information] ." "American Megatrends".]
location = Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States
key_people =
industry = Computer hardware
Diagnostic software
Remote access
Motherboards
Firmware
Storage systems
products = AMIBIOS
Aptio
AMIDIAG
StorTrends
MegaRAC
ManageTrends
revenue =
operating_income =
net_income =
num_employees = 500+ worldwide
homepage = [http://www.ami.com/ www.ami.com]

American Megatrends Incorporated (AMI) is a hardware and software company headquartered in unincorporated Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States that specializes in PC hardware and firmware. It was founded in 1985 by the current chairman and president, S. Shankar.

AMI's product line includes AMIBIOS (a BIOS), Aptio (a successor to AMIBIOS8 based on the UEFI standards), diagnostic software, remote access, motherboards, "backplanes", driver/firmware development, "service processors", storage systems, chassis design, and integrated systems.

AMI claims a number of initiatives:
* First to build motherboards based on Intel's 386 and 486 processor platforms.
* First to use onboard external cache designs for these boards;.
* First to build and ship a quad-Xeon processor system.
* First to support USB.
* First to create a GUI BIOS interface with mouse support.
* First to integrate diagnostics and first to support ACPI.
* First to support SATA in the diagnostics.

Worldwide offices: [" [http://www.ami.com/about/international.cfm International Offices] ." "American Megatrends".]
* United States
** Headquarters: unincorporated Gwinnett County, Georgia
** Field office: Fremont, California
* Kunshan, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China
* Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China
* Munich, Germany
* Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
* Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan
* Seoul, South Korea

Former offices: Dupont, Washington, United States [" [http://www.ami.com/news/pressshow.cfm?PrID=172 American Megatrends Announces the Opening of a New Branch Office in DuPont, Washington] ." "American Megatrends".]

AMIBIOS

AMIBIOS (also AMI BIOS) is the BIOS produced and sold by American Megatrends. It is used both on the company's own motherboards and on motherbords sold by other companies. American Megatrends is the only third-party BIOS manufacturer to also produce its own motherboards. As of 2002, AMI BIOS was the most popular BIOS firmware for PCs. [cite book|title=The Multi-Boot Configuration Handbook|author=Roderick W. Smith|chapter=BIOS History and Design Theory|pages=71|date=2000|publisher=Que Publishing|isbn=0789722836] cite book|title=Upgrading and Repairing PCs|author=Scott Mueller|pages=368—372|date=2002|publisher=Que Publishing|isbn=0789727455]

The original AMI BIOS did not encrypt the machine startup password, which it stored in non-volatile RAM. Therefore, any utility capable of reading a PC's NVRAM was able to read and to alter the password. The AMI WinBIOS encrypts the stored password, using a simple substitution cipher.cite book|title=The Bios Companion: The Book That Doesn't Come with Your Motherhood!|author=Phil Croucher|chapter=Advanced CMOS setup|pages=128|date=2001|publisher=Lulu.com|isbn=0968192807]

The AMI WinBIOS was an update to AMIBIOS, with a graphical user interface setup screen that mimicked the appearance of Windows 3.1. It was described by Thomas Pabst at Tom's Hardware in 1998 as a "big disappointment", in part because of its inability to distribute all IRQ signals to every PCI and ISA expansion slot and by Anand Lal Shimpi at AnandTech as "mask [ing] the high-end and extremely configurable core of their top notch BIOS Setup behind a layer of good-looks and a hardly intimidating interface". [cite web|url=http://tomshardware.com./1998/05/26/review_of_slot_1_motherboards_with_intel_440bx_chipset_/|title=Review of Slot 1 Motherboards with Intel 440BX Chipset — Spring 1998|author=Thomas Pabst|date=1998-05-26|work=Tom's Hardware] [cite web|title=Tyan S1846 Tsunami ATX BX Pentium II Board|date=1998-04-27|author=Anand Lal Shimpi|url=http://anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=219|work=AnandTech]

During powerup, the BIOS firmware displays an ID string in the lower-left-hand corner of the screen. This ID string comprises various pieces of information about the firmware, including when it was compiled, what configuration options were selected, the OEM licence code, and the targeted chipset and motherboard. There are 3 ID string formats, the first for older AMIBIOS, and the second and third for the newer AMI Hi-Flex ("high flexibility") BIOS. These latter are displayed when one presses the Insert key during power-on self-test.

By pressing the Delete key during power-on self-test, during the period when one is prompted to do so, one can invoke the built-in setup utility program. Some AMIBIOS versions also included, in addition to that, a menu-driven system troubleshooting and diagnostics program — a cut-down version of the AMIDIAG utility that AMI also sold separately. This program does not perform extensive memory checks, and its hard disc formatting capabilities only extend to using BIOS APIs for doing so, rather than accessing the ATA disc unit command registers directly. Most recent AMI BIOSes do not include this program.

AMI produces no end-user documentation for its BIOS firmware, leaving that up to the motherboard manufacturers that licence its BIOS firmware. (AMI does not sell its BIOS source code to motherboard manufacturers. It customizes its BIOS for each OEM individually.) However, it has published two books on its BIOS (listed in further reading), written by its engineers.

AMIBIOS is only sold through distributors, not directly to end users. Firmware upgrades and replacements are not available from AMI, except for its own motherboards. Upgrades and replacements for AMIBIOS customized for a motherboard are only available from the manufacturer of that motherboard, or from eSupport. AMI supplies both DOS and Win32 firmware upgrade utilities for its own motherboards. eSupport only supplies a Win32 upgrade utility. [cite web|url=http://ami.com./support/bios.cfm|title=AMIBIOS Support|author=American Megatrends] [cite web|title=Unsupported operating system|url=http://scan.esupport.com./scan_step1.php?r=1|work=eSupport.com|publisher=TouchStone Software|date=2007]

In July of 2008, it was discovered that AMI has shipped defective BIOSes to multiple motherboard vendors including Foxconn, ASUS, and MSI. These BIOSes work with Microsoft Windows, but damage ACPI and hardware support in non-Microsoft operating systems, causing strange errors, kernel panics, missing thermal zone and fan support, and a multitude of other problems. Foxconn is aware of the situation and is working with AMI to resolve the issue, while MSI and Asus's position on the issue is unknown at this time. The issue affects several models of Intel-based motherboards using Socket 775. [cite web|title=Defective AMI BIOS on multiple Foxconn, MSI, and ASUS Intel LGA 775 motherboards breaks ACPI support|url=https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/251338|publisher=Ubuntu Launchpad bug tracking system|date=2008]

ee also

References

Further reading

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External links

* [http://www.ami.com/ American Megatrends Inc.(USA)]
* [http://www.ami.com/support/doc/profile.pdf Company Profile]
* [http://www.amiindia.co.in/ American Megatrends(India)]