MicroStar International (MSI), one of the world’s largest makers of computer mainboards and other components, plans to start transition to Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) in February of 2008. It is unclear how long the transition takes, but once it kicks off, there will hardly be a way back to Basic Input Output System (BIOS) used today.
The first mainboard from MSI for the channel market to use EFI will be P35 Neo3, which is powered by Intel P35 core-logic and supports Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Core 2 Quad, Intel Core 2 Extreme as well as various other LGA775 central processing units (CPUs). According to a news-story by HKEPC web-site, MSI P35 Neo 3’s EFI will support several languages and more precise system settings for tweaking. In order to further popularize EFI, MSI reportedly even embedded three simplistic games into EFI to allow users to play them while the operating system is loaded by the PC.
UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) will be a specification detailing an interface that helps hand off control of the system for the pre-boot environment (i.e.: after the system is powered on, but before the operating system starts) to an operating system, such as Windows or Linux. UEFI will provide a “clean” interface between operating systems and platform firmware at boot time, and will support an architecture-independent mechanism for initializing add-in cards.
EFI is already supported by a number of 64-bit operating systems and platforms, and is an emerging interface for 32-bit operating systems. The inclusion of UEFI in operating systems and platforms will advance interoperability between platforms and add-in cards and pave the way for improvements in boot performance and robustness. The Forum will review the present EFI 1.10 Specification, which was developed by Intel Corp. for any required changes, and intends to publish the first Unified EFI specification by the end of 2005. The Forum will also make available test suites for the UEFI Specification based on contributions from member companies.
Currently the list of UEFI Forum participants includes AMD, American Megatrends, Dell, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Insyde, Intel, Microsoft and Phoenix Technologies.
MSI P35 Neo3 mainboard is due in February, however, it is unclear whether it will cost more or less compared to similar motherboards that feature BIOS. It is claimed that once P35 Neo3 proves to be viable in retail, MSI starts to manufacture wider range of mainboards featuring EFI instead of BIOS.
Comments currently:
10
Discussion started: 01/16/08 10:22:01 AM
Latest comment: 06/20/08 03:14:56 AM
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1.
Boy, I can't wait to see those changes at the end of 2005.
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Posted by: Joe
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Date: 01/16/08 10:22:01 AM]
2.
Its about damn time they ditched the BIOS! EFI will give us a system interface more like the PS3's or XBox360's. You can setup the system in a nice graphical, easy-to-use interface that is as modern as the rest of your system and not a throwback from nearly 20 years ago. I can't wait to have an EFI based system from Intel or AMD even. The future is finally here.
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Posted by: Wingless
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Date: 01/16/08 10:37:58 AM]
3.
Only Vista x64 with SP1 supports EFI... so who really cares about it anyway
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Posted by: MiKeLezZ
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Date: 01/16/08 12:04:44 PM]
4.
I like my black and white or blue and white Award BIOS :D
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Posted by: Joz
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Date: 01/16/08 10:12:36 PM]
+ expand thread (2 answers)
- collapse thread
Absolutely! :-D
The only drawback being the restart after BIOS change... Might be the EFI will change that.
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Posted by: Jhc
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Date: 01/17/08 04:43:32 AM]
Let's make a BIOS fan club! :D No, seriously, what does EFI offer in terms of functionality that BIOS doesn't? Today's BIOSes offer pretty fine tuning of as many options as the manufacturer has bothered to make available, and can automatically adjust any parameter in accordance to the others the user has set manually (if the implementation is good). So what does EFI bring? "...simplistic games ... to allow users to play them while the operating system is loaded by the PC"?! How long do they expect that the OS will be loading?! lol
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Posted by: Ivan
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Date: 01/17/08 06:01:02 AM]
5.
I, can see it now.
CNN:
"The new EFI virus takes control of every compatible computer, the second you push the power button. The virus disables all the human accessible inputs, and starts to output an infinite loop of gay porn videos to your display while at the same time writing zeros to your hdd."
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Posted by: robotic
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Date: 01/17/08 06:10:39 AM]
6.
I hope they [B]FINALLY[/B] start putting core services on the boot ROM!
Certain thing that people do with every computer, browse web, email, watch movies (Divx, h.264, etc.), listen to audio. If those were built into the read-only memory firmware, then no one would ever have to worry about viruses, or malicious spy-ware. The boot ROM for the main board should have a physical switch to allow for flashing so that no software could install something unless the person is absolutely aware of it. This would drastically reduce the risk of root kits into the bios itself and provide a guaranteed clean environment for browsing and email.
I hope that main board manufacturers will get into the business of offering pre-boot operating systems with expandability, security (a physical switch to protect bios from flashing), and the ability to use FLASH memory to add things to the pre-boot OS on chip.
For example, you could store your browser cache, emails, and any extension programs on the flash memory.
That would also be so much more quiet and power efficient! I wouldn't need to boot into any OS (or spin up the hard drives), if all I needed to do was browse the web for a few hours.
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Posted by: roadrun777
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Date: 01/20/08 01:41:23 AM]
7.
I have bought this mainboard, but there isn't any sign of EFI. Please update your article and tell us what's up.
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Posted by: virtualwarp
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Date: 03/23/08 02:25:41 AM]
8.
What about EFI als platform for games? Games whitout Windows! All PC's resources for games!
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Posted by: md
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Date: 06/20/08 03:14:56 AM]
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