System Administration Guide: Basic Administration  x86: Boot
Processes  This section includes information about boot
processes that are unique to booting an x86 based system.  x86:
System BIOS  When an x86 based system is powered on, it is
controlled by the read-only-memory (ROM) Basic Input/Output
System (BIOS). The BIOS is the firmware interface on Oracle
Solaris operating systems that have x86 64-bit and 32-bit
support.  Hardware adapters usually have an on-board BIOS that
displays the physical characteristics of the device. The BIOS is
used to access the device. During the startup process, the
system BIOS checks for the presence of any adapter BIOS. If any
adapters are found, the system then loads and executes each
adapter BIOS. Each adapter's BIOS runs self-test diagnostics and
then displays device information.  The BIOS on most systems has
a user interface, where you can select an ordered list of boot
devices that consists of the following selections:  The BIOS
attempts to boot from each device, in turn