The
<acronym>POST
</acronym> (Power On Self Test) is a set of routines including the memory check, system bus check, and other low-level initialization so the
<acronym>CPU
</acronym> can set up the computer properly. The important step of this stage is determining the boot device. Modern
<acronym>BIOS
</acronym> implementations permit the selection of a boot device, allowing booting from a floppy,
<acronym>CD-ROM
</acronym>, hard disk, or other devices.