INT 18h: Execute BASIC
INT 18h traditionally jumped to an implementation of BASIC stored in ROM. This call would typically be invoked if the BIOS was unable to identify any bootable volumes on startup. (At the time the original IBM PC was released in 1981, the BASIC in ROM was a key feature.) As time went on and BASIC was no longer shipped on all PCs, this interrupt would simply display an error message indicating that no bootable volume was found (famously, "No ROM BASIC", or more explanatory messages in later BIOS versions); in other BIOS versions it would prompt the user to insert a bootable volume and press a key, and then after the user did so it would loop back to the bootstrap loader to try booting again.
Read more about this topic: BIOS Interrupt Call
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