Unified Extensible Firmware Interface

It's a bit of a mouthful, but it might be an idea to commit it to memory.

AND

It might be best to delay ordering that new computer.................

"New PCs could start in just seconds, thanks to an update to one of the oldest parts of desktop computers.

The upgrade will spell the end for the 25-year-old PC start-up software known as BIOS that initialises a machine so its operating system can get going.

The code was not intended to live nearly this long, and adapting it to modern PCs is one reason they take as long as they do to warm up.

BIOS' replacement, known as UEFI, will predominate in new PCs by 2011.

The acronym stands for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface and is designed to be more flexible than its venerable predecessor."

More at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11430069

An enthusiastic evangelist at work (not you Exec!).

Most of the time taken to start a PC from a cold boot is spent loading and initialising Windows, The BIOS doesn't contribute that much to the start-up time.

It's certainly true that the BIOS is past its sell-by date, but it's also true that, in reality, UEFI is just BIOS Mk 2 - or perhaps Mk 20 is nearer it.

The BIOS has evolved very significantly from the original IBM PC version - and not all BIOSes are equal. (I worked for a company that 'cloned' the original IBM PC BIOS to produce a non-infringing copy for some of the early IBM PC clones - we just call them PCs now.)

I agree with MM the bios is only a small part of the story. Most new macs dont use BOIS's already.

My predictions for things that will certainly change the way that PCs 'boot' in future:

1) Solid state disks and cheap RAM
2) OS's that only load an interface (probably a browser) at boot with everything else happening later as required and often from the 'cloud' and often from within the browser.
3) Ultimately devices (PC wont be the right word by then) that provide only power and local storage that can run multiple different images locally but with almost all data being cloud based (they will boot into the cloud). Multiple devices will be able to run the same software so you will access the same stuff from your phone, your ipad, your laptop and your fridge (yes I did mean fridge) .

We shall see if I am right and I predict we will have most of the above within 5 years from now.

jonuk76

FYI I have now replaced HDD & battery. Laptop working OK again. Tks

I do hope your're not entirely right Spaceman. I worry enough about data loss and security when the data is stored under my nose plus when I'm in Spain the data roaming costs will be astronimic without some radical re-pricing.

The data roaming costs and data access costs are a couple of the reasons that I don't think it will all be in the cloud. One of the other reasons is that people like to have the apps on their own device and not in the cloud. They also like local storage for security. Add to that the fact that serious gamers choose PCs rather than games consoles and you have the continued existence of PCs with them getting more and more powerful. Many businesses will also want their data within their organisions.

There are plenty of historical examples of mistakes in predicting the future of computers. I remember going to a lecture at the BCS in the early 1970s and the speaker was predicicting that computers would, in less than ten years, be dealing in concepts too difficult for humans to understand. This was from one of the leading lights in AI at the time.

kernow,

Indeed. Yes, you are right about remote stored data.

But, with regard to roaming, I wonder how long it will be before people realise it costs precious little to supply free WiFi as a customer service like heating or aircon. It is not long since you/we were charged by the day. Now I feel that any hotel I am staying at is short sighted not to be giving it to me for nothing.

So roaming will be more like an emergency system for reading emails on the run - and you'll download any data over coffee or lunch if you can't wait til the evening.

TP

Interesting to see what actually happens but I am happy with my predictions (and I will be happy to be proven wrong), I understand all the concerns expressed but I don't think they will remain for much longer (at least not for most people). Security and privacy are indeed major concerns but I think they can be solved for the vast majority of users. Cloud data can already be very secure and safe e.g. Amazon S3 (which I use).

Data roaming costs are an issue at the moment but this will change and as always in computing technology will merge (e.g. fairly seamless transitions from wifi to GSM data on the iPhone and others).

As always I am playing games I love looking forward and trying to see where we are going.

just defragged and it took hours.....yawn. Anything recommendations? I'm tempted to try the defrag available from the excellent ccleaner people?

Ive tried the free Puran defragger and scheduled it to start at boot-up every Monday. Seemed to work OK.

Try Googling Auslogics as they have a free defragger which I use and feel is very good.

Defragging is something that I tend to do at weekends when the PC is idle. I would've thought that doing it during the week while other stuff is running would slow it down. Just a thought.

I used to use Smart Defragger which was supposed to work when the machine was idle - but I thought it was hogging resources.

I move to this mainly as it comes from the same people of CCleaner that many of us around here think as Bees Knees!

EDIT. Another reason that I moved from the constant defragger is because I was finding it made my nightly Acronis much slower and larger as it had much more new information to record.

TP

Just read the last few posts - what is wrong with the standard defragger?

To be honest I don't bother with defragging at all. For most people its not necessary.

skinny.

A daft answer I know but - with Vista you don't get one of those nice red and blue segmented charts to show you all the hard work it is doing.

TP

That was Windows '98!!! XP doesn't do that. Window's defrag very slow though, imo. As mentioned, best to do it when PC idle for a few hours. Any basic maintenance you can do will help to speed up the processing speed. The less files / rubbish it has to search the faster it will operate.

My Windows defragger kept saying that there were a load of files that couldn't be defragged. The Auslogics defragger somehow manages to delete them. And it's pretty to look at as TP alludes to with his defragger.

I use XP's standard one - but 'pretty to look at' you say, Hils and TP?

That's at least worth a 'Hmmm?', I think.

I don't do ugly, Doc!

Pretty to look at? The words Drying Paint and Watching spring to mind!