[Taffycat]

There is talk of a BIOS replacement, called UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) which, it is said, will predominate in new computers from 2011. Story HERE.

[EvanDavis]

Not much of a new thing really. Apple have been doing it for years

[Ian]

It should be a huge leap for most other desktop PC's though! The current BIOS used on many current motherboards doesn't seem to be too different from ones I was using 15 years ago!

I'll be over the moon if UEFI can bring boot time to under a few seconds - in fact, I'll probably hold off upgrading until those type of motherboards start to appear in 2011

Thanks for the heads up TC, I didn't know about any of this until I read the article!

[muckshifter]

Originally Posted by EvanDavis

Not much of a new thing really. Apple have been doing it for years

Hmmm, not quite ... Mac's have only started using UEFI since they changed to Intels, 'cos intel invented UEFI

Windows were capable several years earlier than Apple to use UEFI, however, Apple did adopt Sun Microsystems' OpenBoot offering, was good too.


About time ... watch out how many different "boot" versions we get.

[TriplexDread]

Im due for an upgrade aswell. Was thinking 2011 was a good year so this will confirm that now I think.
As soon as the newer boards start to come out I will seriously start looking into upgrading as my system is now approaching 7years old, although still decent.

It's done me proud!!

[floppybootstomp]

Thanks for the heads up TC

I was thinking of upgrading at the tail end of 2010, may as well hold off for a few months longer for the new BIOS.

I don't really need to upgrade anyway, just fancied it

Patience old son

[V_R]

BBC behind the times as usual for tech news!

Interesting read though, but i curious just how much better they will be..... My machine already boots in about 10-15 seconds... and about 8 second of that is the POST. Where are they getting their figures from? ;/

From what i've seen about (U)EFI, They've been available in limited numbers for a year or so. However from what I read, the implementation isn't that great. Overclocking is a no no, and there are compatability issues.

The software still needs a bit of work.

Been digging about and found this...

http://www.uefi.org/news/uefi_indust...forms_2010.pdf

and

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/mot...-uefi-review/1

[floppybootstomp]

As ever, nowt's ever black and white and confusion reigns

Impressive bootup time there V_R, in your opinion more due to the SSD drive or the newer Intel Architecture?

I ain't reading that first link - it wuz dull.

But the Bit Tech article - dated january '09 I note - was quite explanatory.

I'll have to time my bootups but off the top of my head I'd say - with 4 year old systems, Intel & AMD - Win 7 Home Premium 64 Bit takes about 30 seconds and XP Pro SP3 takes about two minutes.

[EvanDavis]

Originally Posted by V_R

My machine already boots in about 10-15 seconds...

Thats the thing. Mine boots up pretty quickly as well. But say I want to do something in Photoshop I still have to wait a minute or so for it to load, or if I am playing a game, still have to wait. So what difference does it make if your machine boots up 30 seconds faster ?

[Abarbarian]

Boot up time = Go Faster Stipes