MSI trials EFI BIOS replacement
MSI HAS ANNOUNCED plans to trial the supposed future BIOS replacement, EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface).
The EFI specification was primarily intended to support Intel's past and future architectures under one umbrella, but has taken sometime to come be adopted by manufacturers.
Intel's biggest EFI win was Apple, which has implemented EFI throughout the Intel Mac range.
EFI is a specification that defines a software interface between an operating system and platform firmware. EFI is intended as a significantly improved replacement of the old legacy BIOS firmware interface used by modern PCs.
The EFI specification was originally developed by Intel, and is now managed by the Unified EFI Forum and is officially known as Unified EFI (UEFI).
While this is all sounds nicely formalised and specified, you might be asking how this effects you, the end user.
The specification allows for a considerable change in what can be implemented at this very low level.
Graphical menus, standard mouse point-and-click operations, pre-operating-system application support such as web browsers, mail applications and media players, will all feature heavily within EFI.
MSI's implementation currently lacks much of anything other than what you'd find in a standard BIOS, as the screenshots below show, however it's a firm start and we can start to expect further features and application support appearing as development progresses and EFI demand accelerates.
Standard MSI overclocking controls.
"MSI will start to phase EFI into its next generation motherboard platform, and will allow much easier accessibility of motherboard BIOS systems. The ability to use a GUI and mouse can only encourage users to attempt to unlock the full potential of today's modern motherboards. Even at this early beta stage we have seen excellent OC potential using current generation of MSI motherboards." said Richard Stewart, UK Marketing Manager of MSI.
While it's doubtful EFI makes any difference to the overclocking potential of a motherboard, the simplicity in which the overclocking controls can be used, should aid novice and expert users alike.
It should be noted that while the 64-bit version of Vista supports EFI in SP1, the 32-bit versions will not, Microsoft states:
"Given the advent of mainstream 64-bit computing and the platform costs previously discussed, Microsoft determined that vendors would not have any interest in producing native UEFI 32-bit firmware. Microsoft has therefore chosen to not ship support for 32-bit UEFI implementations."
So, though promising, MSI's EFI motherboards will probably be of limited desire for sometime, but we're just happy progress is finally being made to replace the antiquated PC BIOS.
In fact, it turned out not so simple to start our first experience with MSI Click BIOS. If you got to MSI web-site page devoted to MSI P45 Platinum mainboard or any other mainboard supporting MSI Click BIOS, you will see no mention of it anywhere. There is nothing about it on the page with different BIOS downloads for this board, either. It turned out that you have to go to homepage of the English-language Taiwanese site where you have to locate a small 150x60 pixels banner leading to a separate section on the site discussing Click BIOS. Only here you can read about the features of UEFI BIOS, download the BIOS version and a CD disk image with additional software called MSI Extras Disc.
Reflashing the new BIOS is not that simple, too. MSI mainboards do not have a built-in utility with graphics interface for updating the BIOS. You will not be able to use Windows Live Update either. You must create a boot-up USB Flash Disc, copy BIOS file and Msiflash.exe from the same archive to it. The uncompressed BIOS is over 4MB big, so you won’t be able to use a floppy disc. When you start the system, press F11 during POST to get access to the boot-up menu and select the flash drive as your boot-up device. Boot the system, type “msiflash [filename] /p”, wait for the update to go through and reboot the system. You will have to repeat this succession of actions if you decide to go back from UEFI to the regular BIOS. Pretty complicated, don’t you think so?
UEFI BIOS may make it easier for the beginner to get acquainted with the board, but this complicated reflashing process may scare him away. In fact, there are quite a few ways of making BIOS updating easy. For Intel mainboards you can download a self-extracting archive with the BIOS and launch it right from Windows. You will be offered to reboot and the BIOS will get automatically updated. EVGA offers to download an image file with the BIOS to be saved on a CD disc. The BIOS is updated automatically, just select the correct boot-up device. abit offers several bat-files with the reflashing utility name, BIOS file name and all corresponding keys already in them. It is much easier to type START or RUNME and then follow the system’s instructions, you are less likely to make a mistake than in case you have to type msiflash E7512ims.107 /p or something like that.
Overall, we hope that BIOS reflashing will soon become simpler. If you are not discouraged by these complications or are experienced enough not to find it difficult at all, then you will be able to successfully accomplish the BIOS updating process. After that, press F2 or Del to enter Click BIOS.
Extensible Firmware Interface
The Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) is a specification that defines a software interface between an operating system and platform firmware. EFI is intended as a significantly improved replacement of the old legacy BIOS firmware interface historically used by all IBM PC-compatible personal computers. The EFI specification was originally developed by Intel, and is now managed by the Unified EFI Forum and is officially known as Unified EFI (UEFI).
The original motivation for EFI came during early development of the first Intel-HP Itanium systems in the mid-1990s. PC BIOS limitations (16-bit processor mode, 1 MB addressable space, PC AT hardware dependencies, etc.) were seen as clearly unacceptable for the larger server platforms Itanium was targeting. The initial effort to address these concerns was initially called Intel Boot Initiative and was later renamed to EFI.
EFI specification 1.02 was released by Intel on December 12, 2000. (Version 1.01 was the original issue; it had incorrect legal and trademark information and was quickly withdrawn.)
EFI specification 1.10 was released by Intel on December 1, 2002. It included the EFI driver model as well as several minor enhancements to 1.02.
In 2005, Intel contributed this specification to the UEFI Forum, who is now responsible for its development and promotion. EFI was renamed to Unified EFI (UEFI) to reflect this; most documentation uses both terms interchangeably.
The UEFI Forum released version 2.1 of the UEFI specification on January 7, 2007; as of March 2007, it is the latest publicly available specification. It added and improved cryptography, network authentication, and the User Interface Architecture (Human Interface Infrastructure in UEFI).
MSI HAS ANNOUNCED plans to trial the supposed future BIOS replacement, EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface).
The EFI specification was primarily intended to support Intel's past and future architectures under one umbrella, but has taken sometime to come be adopted by manufacturers.
Intel's biggest EFI win was Apple, which has implemented EFI throughout the Intel Mac range.
EFI is a specification that defines a software interface between an operating system and platform firmware. EFI is intended as a significantly improved replacement of the old legacy BIOS firmware interface used by modern PCs.
The EFI specification was originally developed by Intel, and is now managed by the Unified EFI Forum and is officially known as Unified EFI (UEFI).
While this is all sounds nicely formalised and specified, you might be asking how this effects you, the end user.
The specification allows for a considerable change in what can be implemented at this very low level.
Graphical menus, standard mouse point-and-click operations, pre-operating-system application support such as web browsers, mail applications and media players, will all feature heavily within EFI.
MSI's implementation currently lacks much of anything other than what you'd find in a standard BIOS, as the screenshots below show, however it's a firm start and we can start to expect further features and application support appearing as development progresses and EFI demand accelerates.
Standard MSI overclocking controls."MSI will start to phase EFI into its next generation motherboard platform, and will allow much easier accessibility of motherboard BIOS systems. The ability to use a GUI and mouse can only encourage users to attempt to unlock the full potential of today's modern motherboards. Even at this early beta stage we have seen excellent OC potential using current generation of MSI motherboards." said Richard Stewart, UK Marketing Manager of MSI.
While it's doubtful EFI makes any difference to the overclocking potential of a motherboard, the simplicity in which the overclocking controls can be used, should aid novice and expert users alike.
It should be noted that while the 64-bit version of Vista supports EFI in SP1, the 32-bit versions will not, Microsoft states:
"Given the advent of mainstream 64-bit computing and the platform costs previously discussed, Microsoft determined that vendors would not have any interest in producing native UEFI 32-bit firmware. Microsoft has therefore chosen to not ship support for 32-bit UEFI implementations."
So, though promising, MSI's EFI motherboards will probably be of limited desire for sometime, but we're just happy progress is finally being made to replace the antiquated PC BIOS.
In fact, it turned out not so simple to start our first experience with MSI Click BIOS. If you got to MSI web-site page devoted to MSI P45 Platinum mainboard or any other mainboard supporting MSI Click BIOS, you will see no mention of it anywhere. There is nothing about it on the page with different BIOS downloads for this board, either. It turned out that you have to go to homepage of the English-language Taiwanese site where you have to locate a small 150x60 pixels banner leading to a separate section on the site discussing Click BIOS. Only here you can read about the features of UEFI BIOS, download the BIOS version and a CD disk image with additional software called MSI Extras Disc.
Reflashing the new BIOS is not that simple, too. MSI mainboards do not have a built-in utility with graphics interface for updating the BIOS. You will not be able to use Windows Live Update either. You must create a boot-up USB Flash Disc, copy BIOS file and Msiflash.exe from the same archive to it. The uncompressed BIOS is over 4MB big, so you won’t be able to use a floppy disc. When you start the system, press F11 during POST to get access to the boot-up menu and select the flash drive as your boot-up device. Boot the system, type “msiflash [filename] /p”, wait for the update to go through and reboot the system. You will have to repeat this succession of actions if you decide to go back from UEFI to the regular BIOS. Pretty complicated, don’t you think so?
UEFI BIOS may make it easier for the beginner to get acquainted with the board, but this complicated reflashing process may scare him away. In fact, there are quite a few ways of making BIOS updating easy. For Intel mainboards you can download a self-extracting archive with the BIOS and launch it right from Windows. You will be offered to reboot and the BIOS will get automatically updated. EVGA offers to download an image file with the BIOS to be saved on a CD disc. The BIOS is updated automatically, just select the correct boot-up device. abit offers several bat-files with the reflashing utility name, BIOS file name and all corresponding keys already in them. It is much easier to type START or RUNME and then follow the system’s instructions, you are less likely to make a mistake than in case you have to type msiflash E7512ims.107 /p or something like that.
Overall, we hope that BIOS reflashing will soon become simpler. If you are not discouraged by these complications or are experienced enough not to find it difficult at all, then you will be able to successfully accomplish the BIOS updating process. After that, press F2 or Del to enter Click BIOS.
Extensible Firmware Interface
The Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) is a specification that defines a software interface between an operating system and platform firmware. EFI is intended as a significantly improved replacement of the old legacy BIOS firmware interface historically used by all IBM PC-compatible personal computers. The EFI specification was originally developed by Intel, and is now managed by the Unified EFI Forum and is officially known as Unified EFI (UEFI).
The original motivation for EFI came during early development of the first Intel-HP Itanium systems in the mid-1990s. PC BIOS limitations (16-bit processor mode, 1 MB addressable space, PC AT hardware dependencies, etc.) were seen as clearly unacceptable for the larger server platforms Itanium was targeting. The initial effort to address these concerns was initially called Intel Boot Initiative and was later renamed to EFI.
EFI specification 1.02 was released by Intel on December 12, 2000. (Version 1.01 was the original issue; it had incorrect legal and trademark information and was quickly withdrawn.)
EFI specification 1.10 was released by Intel on December 1, 2002. It included the EFI driver model as well as several minor enhancements to 1.02.
In 2005, Intel contributed this specification to the UEFI Forum, who is now responsible for its development and promotion. EFI was renamed to Unified EFI (UEFI) to reflect this; most documentation uses both terms interchangeably.
The UEFI Forum released version 2.1 of the UEFI specification on January 7, 2007; as of March 2007, it is the latest publicly available specification. It added and improved cryptography, network authentication, and the User Interface Architecture (Human Interface Infrastructure in UEFI).
No comments:
Post a Comment