What is in the "bootstrap code area" in a modern MBR?

Question

I'm reading the wikipedia article on Master Boot Record and specifically curious about what (if anything) needs to be in the "bootstrap code area" for the MBR to be readable in modern systems. I used parted to create an MBR on an SD card then used xxd /dev/mmcblk0 to peek at the raw data that was written. I can see:

• partition entries at 0x01BE and 0x01CE
• boot signature 0x55AA at 0x01FE-0x01FF

But what is the meaning of the data from 0x0000 through 0x01BD?

Example:

00000000: fab8 0010 8ed0 bc00 b0b8 0000 8ed8 8ec0  ................
00000010: fbbe 007c bf00 06b9 0002 f3a4 ea21 0600  ...|.........!..
00000020: 00be be07 3804 750b 83c6 1081 fefe 0775  ....8.u........u
00000030: f3eb 16b4 02b0 01bb 007c b280 8a74 018b  .........|...t..
00000040: 4c02 cd13 ea00 7c00 00eb fe00 0000 0000  L.....|.........
00000050: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
00000060: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
00000070: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
00000080: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
00000090: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
000000a0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
000000b0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
000000c0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
000000d0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
000000e0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
000000f0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
00000100: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
00000110: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
00000120: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
00000130: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
00000140: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
00000150: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
00000160: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
00000170: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
00000180: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
00000190: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
000001a0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
000001b0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 fed0 4bb2 0000 8020  ..........K.... 
000001c0: 2100 8328 0d0c 0008 0000 f1f2 0200 0003  !..(............
000001d0: c2eb 8303 c1eb f1fa 0200 0000 6000 0000  ............`...
000001e0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
000001f0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 55aa  ..............U.

Some context: This is a disk image for a bootable SD card in a Beablebone-like ARM/Linux SBC. But since the MBR is architecture/ OS independent, I assume - at least on ARM - there is no actual machine code in the "bootstrap code area." Is it x86/ BIOS machine code that exists by convention and is ignored on ARM?

If I wrote arbitrary data in 0x100-0x150 would the MBR still be readable?