Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
drives (SSDs), optical drives, network routers, wireless access points, network attached storage
drives, Blu-ray players, digital cameras, and more. Installing flash ROM or firmware upgrades is as
easy as downloading a file from the device manufacturer website and running the update program
included in the file. Who knows, one day, you might find yourself downloading flash ROM upgrades
for your toaster!
ROM BIOS Manufacturers
Several popular BIOS manufacturers on the market today supply the majority of motherboard and
system manufacturers with the code for their ROMs. This section discusses the various available
versions.
Several companies have specialized in the development of a compatible ROM BIOS product. The
three major companies that come to mind in discussing ROM BIOS software are American
Megatrends, Inc. (AMI), Phoenix Technologies, and Award Software (now owned by Phoenix
Technologies). Each company licenses its ROM BIOS to motherboard manufacturers so those
manufacturers can worry about the hardware rather than the software. To obtain one of these ROMs
for a motherboard, the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) must answer many questions about the
design of the system so that the proper BIOS can be either developed or selected from those already
designed. Combining a ROM BIOS and a motherboard is not a haphazard task. No single, generic,
compatible ROM exists, either. AMI, Award, and Phoenix ship many variations of their BIOS code to
different board manufacturers, each one custom-tailored to that specific motherboard.
Over the years, some major changes have occurred in the BIOS industry. Intel, perhaps the largest
BIOS customer, has switched between Phoenix and AMI for most of its motherboards. Intel originally
used a Phoenix BIOS core in its motherboards up through 1995, when it changed to an AMI core. It
then used AMI until 1997, when it switched back to Phoenix. In 1999 Intel switched again, this time
back to AMI. In each case note that while Intel gets the core BIOS from Phoenix or AMI, they are
highly customized for the individual motherboards in which they are installed.
Another major development occurred in late 1998, when Phoenix bought Award. Since then Phoenix
has sold both the Phoenix and Award BIOS as different products. The Award BIOS is sold as its
standard product, whereas the Phoenix BIOS is sold as a more feature-rich BIOS for high-end
systems. Currently, the BIOS market is mostly divided between AMI and Phoenix; however, Phoenix
not only develops the BIOS for many systems, but also is the primary BIOS developer responsible for
new BIOS development and new BIOS standards.
Another development in recent years has been the creation of separate BIOS products for 32-bit and
64-bit desktop systems, mobile systems, 32-bit and 64-bit servers, and embedded devices. Although
all BIOS chips must perform some of the same tasks, a BIOS product optimized for a mobile
computer often needs additional support for features such as docking modules, advanced battery
power management, as well as bootable USB and removable flash memory devices, whereas a BIOS
optimized for a server needs support for features such as advanced hardware monitoring and ECC
(error correcting code) memory. By creating customized BIOS versions for different platforms, BIOS
vendors provide support for the features needed by a particular computing platform and provide
better performance and stability.
Modern BIOS incorporate the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), which, most
importantly, allows support for loading modern operating systems from hard drive partitions larger
than 2TB, as well as other advanced functionality. Both Phoenix and AMI have core BIOS products
