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Swedes Show Intel Sandy Bridge Running BIOS-Successor UEFI
An anonymous reader writes "SweClockers.com has gotten it hands on a Intel Sandy Bridge motherboard running Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, the long awaited successor of age-old BIOS. Among the differences is a significantly more user-friendly interface, the ability to boot from drives larger than 2 TB and faster boot times. Check it out, on video, in Swedish." Here's an Google's translation of the article.
What's going on with OpenBIOS? It showed a lot of promise ...
We use EFI to boot a Linux image loaded into EFI flash. So it takes less than a second to start the kernel (around 500 milliseconds - we haven't timed it precisely).
Not really.
While I wouldn't change the fuel injectors based on a seasonal change, I have changed them based around performance limitation of stock setups.
I have also changed out the breathing system to take advantage of less restrictive airflow. I have added performance spark plugs and ignition systems in some cases too.
The point is that it's not uncommon to modify the mechanics of a car to obtain some objective. Increased fuel injector size allows quicker/more responsive, and in some cases, more delivery of fuel. Of course you probably wouldn't see much of an improvement if you didn't alter other things too.
Perhaps the person who changes bios settings to tweak them out is the same type of person who would soup up a car to get the most performance possible from them.
At least Acer and Sony seem to be using this kind of setup for all of their recent laptops for a few years now, and I'm pretty sure quite a few other manufacturers are doing the same.
That's all I needed to hear...
Sony:
The same people who have no qualms about adding a rootkit to your windows-based PC if you have the audacity to put an audio CD in your drive.
The same people that make the VAIO, which is one of the most ridiculous machines to have to work on if any of the hardware fails (and it does, repeatedly and often).
The same people who sold a product, then removed half the features in the name of anti-piracy... causing the pirates to start hacking the DRM on their games, instead of playing with OtherOS.
and
Acer:
The guys who make laptops with an average life expectancy of about 30 days past the warranty period.
The guys who make laptops that you can't work on without a complete tear-down in order to access anything more than the RAM.
Both of these shining beacons of industry say this is good tech? That's a fantastic recommendation (in my eyes, at least), for why we should avoid it like the plague. Who knows what kind of nasty bugs it will add to your system? What's to stop them from logging everything your system does, and/or phoning home constantly?
Seriously, you people should read more Shadowrun and Cyberpunk rulebooks, there's "history" in there that seems to be coming true in the real world.
--
Disclaimer: I have no idea what I'm talking about.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Pardon me, what happens if there is a controller error with the CD drive? How exactly would you diagnose this?
For that matter, what if the bootable CD runs into an error that it is unable to cope with-- perhaps the hard drive is acting funny, or refusing to read back block X, or whatever...
And if you try to claim that THATS impossible, then im sorry, I agree with GP-- you havent troubleshot many computers.