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A new innovation could spell the end for
those familiar yet incomprehensible pages of scrolling white text,
which we’ve all spent hours watching as our PCs chug and grind their
way through to the desktop. In fact, computers could be booting to
their installed operating system in just seconds when the
long-standing BIOS system is replaced by a new standard.
What is
BIOS and what is its replacement?
BIOS - the basic input/output system -
that has been the de facto standard for firmware interfaces for the
past 25 years - is set be upgraded to a new standard, known as UEFI.
According to the collaborative network of developers behind the
technology, Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) could
become the dominant standard for new PCs and motherboards by the end
of 2011.
Originally developed exclusively by Intel as merely EFI, in 2005 the
company formed an alliance with other technology companies such as
AMD, Apple and Dell to drive the industry towards replacing the
ageing BIOS.
The time
it takes to snap your fingers
Speaking to the BBC, the head of the
UEFI forum said that the creators of BIOS expected it to be
surpassed after around 250,000 machines.
"It was never really designed to be extensible over time,"
said Mr Mark Doran, who added that the age of BIOS meant that a
replacement offered more benefits than just a quicker boot speed.
"Drive size limits that were inherent to the original PC
design - two terabytes are going to become an issue pretty soon for
those that use their PC a lot for pictures and video," he said,
explaining how BIOS was beginning to hamper development in computing
as 64-bit processors and other platforms, such as tablet or mobile
devices, became more common.
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One example is that USB drives
are forced by BIOS to register as either a hard drive or
floppy drive - and that currently, computers cannot register
USB peripherals such as keyboards until the firmware has
loaded the operating system and the relevant drivers. This
can leave PCs that need an OS installation stranded at boot
level unless an AT or PS/2 keyboard is available.
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"It was never really designed to be extensible over time,"
said Mr Mark Doran, who added that the age of BIOS meant
that a replacement offered more benefits than just a quicker
boot speed. |
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Days prior to the BBC's report,
technology website CNET interviewed Mr Doran and several
other members of the UEFI forum. According to Stephen Jones
of Phoneix Technologies, a BIOS supplier to motherboard
manufacturers, the new technology has seen PC's boot in just
75 milliseconds - "less than the time it takes to snap your
fingers."
However despite the end-user focus on boot times, the
interviewees were quick to point out that UEFI is not truly
aimed at improving boot speeds.
"The reality is UEFI was started for various reasons," said
Surendra Arora of Phoenix. "The real reason was to move away
from assembly code - that was what the bring-up process used
to be, hard coded or machine level coding. |
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