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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The BIOS is actually the name you’re looking for. It stands for Basic Input/Output System and is a primordial chunk of machine code called firmware installed on a physical chip called the EPROM. When you power on your computer the motherboard loads the BIOS into low-level memory and the BIOS is what performs the Power-On Self-Test, detects the hardware currently installed, and finds the bootloader installed on the system hard drive and loads that so the rest of the Operating System can start.
It’s actually largely outdated with most modern computers using a new system called UEFI or the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface. With BIOS different manufacturers invented their own firmware, eventually someone reverse engineered the IBM firmware allowing other manufacturers to build PCs that were “IBM Compatible”, if you’re old enough to remember that term from back in the day. UEFI is an open standard for Windows, Linux, and kindof Mac that allows for much more nuanced control of hardware by the OS itself as well as loading of more complex bootloaders. Though it basically does the same thing as BIOS did, just fancier.
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