DEATHMATCH; UEFI vs. BIOS

As the first bit of code that’s run when you hit the power button, the PC’s Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) is responsible for tickling the other pieces of hardware awake, checking their condition, and then fi nally passing control over to the operating system. It’s also ancient and dates back to the very fi rst PC. But there’s a new sheriff in town, fi nally. Called Unifi ed Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), it’s meant to update one of the oldest legacy technologies in personal computing. As we know, newer is not always better. This month we rank the major factors in both technologies and determine which you should have in your next PC.



ROUND 1
FEATURES The BIOS is written in Assembly, cannot be translated to another CPUarchitecture, runs in 16-bit real mode, and can only address 1MB of RAM. UEFI, on the other hand, is written in C, supports both 32- bit and 64-bit, and even has network access. UEFI also promises faster boot times over the BIOS, although we have yet to see it in our Lab.WINNER: UEFIROUND 2
PARTITION LIMIT The BIOS would likely continue to be supported if not for its most glaring problem: its inability to support partitions beyond 2TB (2.2TB to be specifi c). UEFI, on the other hand, will support up to 9.4ZB, or 9.4 billion terabytes.
WINNER: UEFI

ROUND 3
INTERFACE If you went back in time and sat down in front of your PC and booted into the BIOS, you wouldn’t be able to tell if it was 1989, 1995, or 2010. Yeah, it’s that freaking creaky. Peep a UEFI board and you know you’re not in Kansas anymore. Of the ones we’ve seen, Asus’s implementation (pictured on the previous page) is particularly striking. Not all UEFI interfaces are pretty, though. Intel’s UEFI boards and Gigabyte’s P67 boards, for example, are based on UEFI but still use a standard BIOS interface. Nevertheless, the possibilities with UEFI make it the clear
winner. WINNER: UEFI

ROUND 4
PRONUNCIATION Rightly or wrongly, we pronounce BIOS as buy-ohs and everyone knows
what we mean. UEFI, though, is a tough one. You can truncate it C-3PO (3PO) style to EFI or effy, but we’re leaning toward oofy, as in Goofy without the g. Either way, the winner is clear.
WINNER: BIOS

ROUND 5
EASE OF USE The BIOS has been with us so long, you’d think that most of us could drive it in our sleep. Unfortunately, it’s not always that easy. Every board maker has its own BIOS interface and they are often as diffi cult to set as a digital watch sometimes. UEFI’s graphical interface promises greater ease of use, and, indeed, Asus’s drag-anddrop interface for boot devices is evidence of that. Still, some UEFI settings are as diffi cult to decipher as those in the BIOS, but it’s only going to get easier
and better from here. WINNER: UEFI

And the Winner Is...
Change is difficult for many. It’s like making the switch from Office 2003 to Office 2010, or getting rid of your favorite mouse—many regret it immediately. But moving from the BIOS interface and its legacy underpinnings is more akin to finally getting rid of your 15-year-old skivvies—you know, the ones with worn-out elastic. Yeah, they work, but would you r eally miss them if they were gone? That’s the way we feel about the BIOS at this point. If you’re against change, deal with it. UEFI is the future and we’re only at the beginning.
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