Swedes Show Intel Sandy Bridge Running BIOS-Successor UEFI 216
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.
Re:UEFI has been around for years. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:UEFI has been around for years. (Score:3, Interesting)
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).
Re:Diagnostics, system configuration, etc (Score:1, Interesting)
You can access system profiler from the OS install disc too along with some other utilities, AFAIK.
Also, EFI is not totally inaccessible on a Mac. It just doesn't have a menu driven interface by default. Several key combinations modify the startup sequence, boot order/options, whatever, just like most BIOS would do.
You didn't really make the case for needing to configuring hardware from firmware vs. configuring hardware from software the hardware was designed to run.
Something tells me you are equally miffed about the EFI in your car and this conversation will go nowhere...
Re:UEFI has been around for years. (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:UEFI has been around for years. (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:What happens if the OS does run? (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Again FUD about BIOS/MBR limitations (Score:1, Interesting)
Let's get it straight:
- BIOS + MBR can boot from drives larger than 2TB
- BIOS + GPT works for boot drives as long as you use some other OS than Windows
EFI is needed only if your boot partition (note, a partition isn't the same thing as a drive) is larger than 2TB AND you are using Windows.
That's the current limitation, when hard drives start to use 4K sectors externally, you will able to boot from 16TB partitions and fully use the space of 32TB hard drives using the BIOS + MBR + Windows combination. For the average consumer, there isn't a need to adopt EFI anytime soon.