calling BIOS routines directly from windows

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I have a question about BIOS routines:

When we write this code in windows

C++

mov ah, 0x0e
mov al, '!'
int 0x10

Does it really call BIOS routine directly or converts it to the Win API?
In other words, can we call BIOS routines directly from Windows or GNU/Linux?

Posted 14-May-12 9:01am

Reza Oruji

Updated 14-May-12 10:43am

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-14T10:09:00

Of course it calls BIOS directly, tries to do so. But don't think you can use such code to call BIOS in Windows or Linux.

You can use many assembly codes in the application mode, but hardly BIOS. In x86 real mode, you could, but this is not what modern OS use. For example, in your code, int 0x10 will throw the exception like General Protection Fault. Remember, you are working in the protected mode of x86. Please see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_mode[^].

See also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_mode[^],
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_mode[^].

—SA