Change to 'Bios' will make for PCs that boot in seconds

Hallelujah

 

About time!

 

Don't hold your breath. This is not new news. Note this December 2003 CNET article about the same "instant on" technology: Writing an end to the bio of BIOS.

This is the third reference I have seen to that BBC article in 2 days. Makes me wonder if that reporter was under pressure to put something out, anything, or get fired. How many computers do you know of need to "warm up"?

 

Actually I am reading this since many years but still don,t find any real steps in this direction.

 

True. But even it does finally take off, I don't find boot times that important to me, or to most people I have spoken too. Yeah, when in a hurry, you want the computer to hurry up, but most people turn it on in the morning and off at night, so waiting a extra couple minutes once in the morning really is not a huge deal. I sure am not going to hurry up and replace all my motherboards when this comes out.

Also, now that I have migrated to Windows 7 and use it's hybrid sleep mode instead of shutting down at night, waiting for it to wake up is no big deal.

That said, you can bet there will be a big marketing blitz when, if, it come to fruition trying to convince us all this is something we just gotta have. I am sure Microsoft will be behind it too, since I note a new motherboard is considered a new computer, and a new computer requires a new license for Windows and all other OEM software.

 

Another issue is the same problem in EFI that some people got really alarmed about.
It's own networking functionality capable of search, find, and udate/reflashing components without user knowledge or consent.
Coreboot was developed because of this issue of networking functionality in the BIOS.
UEFI will most likely continue this tradition carried on from EFI.

 

Well, I don't know about these devices "calling home" for updates on their own, but with their enhanced networking capabilities, they do promise greater flexibility for remote administration on large networks. Even if they can call home, it can be blocked or managed by a firewall or utility. I don't think motherboard makers would dare configure systems to call home without user consent by default. Certainly that is something to watch for, but I don't see it happening.

 

how the sales with EFI are going to dominate in 2011 when so far i can't see even a single PC with this thing on the mobo.

 

Apple has had them for a few years and other non-WIntel type computers have too. ASUS released an upgrade for one their boards last year but I don't think it was well accepted. I suspect it will first appear on high-end enthusiast boards, then, if accepted, trickle down.