BIOS will be dead in 3 years

[shankle]

This is what I read and not my idea.
What I want to know is how is it possible to eliminate the BIOS
from a PC?

[joemc]

you could call it something else if you wanted too... but there is going to be some type of "boot firmware" to start the OS.  Maybe the OS could be the firmware, and you insert the operating system into a PCI slot.

[sinsi]

Intel's old dog is being reincarnated - EFI
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/BIOS-UEFI-motherboard-HDD-interface,10627.html

[jj2007]

Intel's old dog is being reincarnated - EFI
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/BIOS-UEFI-motherboard-HDD-interface,10627.html

"to address other problems that have plagued PCs for years, including hard drive storage limits beyond 2 TB."

For years? That has plagued me since I was a teenager!

[tenkey]

The BIOS is just software. Its equivalent can be loaded from a file, or be embedded in any bootable software.

A working RAM-based system only requires a boot loader and bootable software. The software can be on a CD or Flash drive, or can be downloaded from a network.

[clive]

The referencing article is here
http://www.thinq.co.uk/2010/6/8/exclusive-msi-bios-will-be-dead-three-years/

You still need a "BIOS" to get the CPU/Chipset/RAM into usable shape, what they really want to get rid of is the whole legacy mess of INT 10, INT 13, etc. The BIOS code is a particular mess because there is lots of code tied to specific addresses so that badly written antiquated software (Microsoft's original Flight Simulator for example) will work. Not that anyone is using any of this junk, but it's probably part of a test suite.

They should have done this decades ago.

[hutch--]

While I agree that the old DOS based stuff needed to go a long time ago, I am fundamentally suspicious of any system that is too easy to load and run for the obvious security reasons. With the two quads I am using at the moment, the Intel board has this slow pig of a "smart" BIOS where the Gigabyte board has a nice fast clear old fashioned style of BIOS that boots like a rocket.

I am all in favour of a BIOS that you can only get at by changing a jumper on the board and having to boot it from a CD or pendrive. Makes them really hard to hack.

[oex]

I think Acorn used to have the whole OS on ROM.... My old IT teacher used to swear by them but then he was a paedophile so obviously didnt want anyone getting into his machine. He would lock his office next to the IT rooms and bared all students (and teachers) from it.

They were horrible to program though

[hutch--]

 ::)

> but then he was a paedophile so obviously didnt want anyone getting into his machine.

What a charming fellow.

[oex]

I am of the opinion there are reasons why computers are penetrable even though technologies indeed exist to prevent this

[Rockoon]

The end result, it appears to me, will be that there will be this standard (U)EFI and then a proprietary emulation of old BIOS stored on disk.

The key here is that the emulation will be proprietary. You wont be able to take the emulation code from a GIGABYTE board and use it on an MSI or ASUS board .. so what really was the point of putting it somewhere other than on the board?

The article in question that the OP had read was about MSI presenting some sort of graphical point-and-click bios setup screen that just happened to be built on top of a UEFI board. Not surprisingly, graphical bios setup screens arent actually new. They have been rejected by the community because of the various issues that come with it (what if the video card doesnt support the graphics modes the bios supports? what if the only available pointing device doesn't support mouse emulation? etc.. etc..)

BIOS's are the way they are for legitimate reasons.

[dedndave]

sounds like one more place to stick a virus to me - lol
and....
a source of designed incompatibilty with older systems
i.e. they want everyone to buy a new computer again
which means - new OS - new apps - new everything
they are determined to make XP obsolete - lol
just another way for them to make more money
as if they don't have enough already

[shankle]

I'll second that Dave.
They in their infinite wisdom obsoleted the following in my short span of experience:
Microsofts Masm (which I paid for)
Basic (which I paid for)
C++ no longer works on Vista (which I paid for)
Dos (which I paid for)
windows 3.1 (which I paid for)
windows 98 (which I paid for)
Millennium (ah - I missed this one)
soon Windows XP (which I paid for)

not obsolete YET
Vista (which I paid for)

Monotonous isn't it and expensive.
I must have missed something.
List is to short.

Linux? free

[vanjast]

While there are different Mobo/Chip manufacturers - there will be BIOS....   of one form or another.
It's just common sense, as it was in the first place.
:8)

[dedndave]

yah - but it may not reside in a chip on the m/b
it is feasible to put it on the hard drive, although, i don't really see much advantage there
at any rate, it could be in flash someplace besides the m/b - similar to a thumb-drive, i suppose
of course, wherever it resides, the m/b will require some kind of minimal bootstrap code to load it