INT 13h is shorthand for BIOS interrupt call 13hex, the 20th interrupt vector in an x86-based (IBM PC-descended) computer system. The BIOS typically sets up a real mode interrupt handler at this vector that provides sector-based hard disk and floppy disk read and write services using cylinder-head-sector (CHS) addressing. Modern PC BIOSes also include INT 13h extension functions, originated by IBM and Microsoft in 1992, that provide those same disk access services using 64-bit LBA addressing; with minor additions, these were quasi-standardized by Phoenix Technologies and others as the EDD (Enhanced Disk Drive) BIOS extensions. INT is an x86 instruction that triggers a software interrupt, and 13hex is the interrupt number (as a hexadecimal value) being called. Modern computers come with both BIOS INT 13h and UEFI functionality that provides the same services and more, with the exception of UEFI Class 3 that completely removes CSM thus lacks INT 13h and other interrupts. Typically, UEFI drivers use LBA-addressing instead of CHS-addressing. Overview Under real mode operating systems, such as DOS, calling INT 13h would jump into the computer's ROM-BIOS code for low-level disk services, which would carry out physical sector-based disk read or write operations for the program. In DOS, it serves as the low-level interface for the built-in block device drivers for hard disks and floppy disks. This allows INT 25h and INT 26h to provide absolute disk read/write functions for logical sectors to the FAT file system driver in the DOS kernel, which handles file-related requests through DOS API (INT 21h) functions. Under protected mode operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows NT derivatives (e.g. NT4, 2000, XP, and Server 2003) and Linux with dosemu, the OS intercepts the call and passes it to the operating system's native disk I/O mechanism. Windows 9x and Windows for Workgroups 3.11 also bypass BIOS routines when using 32-bit Disk Access. Besides performing low-level disk access, INT 13h calls and related BIOS data structures also provide information about the types and capacities of disks (or other DASD devices) attached to the system; when a protected-mode OS boots, it may use that information from the BIOS to enumerate disk hardware so that it (the OS) can load and configure appropriate disk I/O drivers. The original BIOS real-mode INT 13h interface supports drives of sizes up to about 8 GB using what is commonly referred to as physical CHS addressing. This limit originates from the