Ok this may sound absurd or weird (or both lol) but I’ve been curious for quite a while now about what powers a BIOS chip? I get it, it must be some sort of code or programming but how exactly does a BIOS chip come to life (which then powers a PC / laptop, for example)? Like is there some sort of a master device or a piece of code that you just insert into a piece of metal & plastic?
P.s.: I’m REALLY hoping someone actually reads & replies. Thanks in advance guys!
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A BIOS chip is just a Flash memory. You can ask it: “Hey, what’s the value at position 1234?” and it will answer: “10101101”. And that’s basically it.
The purpose of the BIOS chip is to memorize a single EXE file. This EXE file is a program, that will be executed each time your computer starts. All you see until Windows/Linux gets loaded is done by this program. The loading of the staring EXE of Windows/Linux is also done by this program.
When the CPU gets powered up, it always starts executing a program from some predefined position – let’s say, 999999990. So it asks: “what’s at position 999999990?” The motherboard redirects requests for positions 999****** to the BIOS chip. So the CPU starts reading an EXE file from the BIOS chip.
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