What is a bios hardware or software

[rahul_cracker]

hi
i am new here so please excuse me for the silly question .What is a BIOS a hardware or a software on the motherboard ,and what is the cmos supposed to mean a hawdware technology for manufacturing the dear silicon chips
thanks

 

[Thorax]

Bios is an acronym for basic input/output system, and it is a program that runs before anything else when you boot up. It's stored on a CMOS chip on the motherboard.

 

[Pain]

Right. Cmos and Bios are sort of used interchangably by most people, and people still know what you're talking about, but the bios is the software and the cmos is what it's stored on.

CMOS is complementary metal-oxide semiconductor and there are many variations or improvements to the basic process in use for manufacturing semiconductors.

 

[prolfe]

Hi Rahul,
Welcome to THG forumz.
Remember, a hardware is an actual physical piece of technology, like a circuit board, a processor chip, a memory chip, etc. The CMOS is that hardware which is used when the computer first comes on. It is from this CMOS that the computer "discovers" itself.
A software is programming code that allows the user(or other pieces of software or hardware) to interact with the hardware. Any example of this is a driver that allows an operating system to work with a sound card, or an operating system that allows the user to interact with the hard drive. Most software we use today is stored on discs, but software can be stored on chips (hardware). The BIOS is such a piece of software. It is stored on the CMOS and is designed to be Read-Only. We call this type of storage ROM (Read-Only Memory). It is important to note that the BIOS can be edited, after a fashion, by "flashing". That is to say, the BIOS can be replaced by a different version, but it cannot be edited in the same way that you edit the settings on Firefox, or determine the installation location of you favorite game.

By the way, if I am in error on my technical details, please do not flame me; I am not an expert like a lot of the forum veterans (but I do aspire to be, one day).

 

[Pain]

Hehe. CMOS is what I said above, it's a process more than a thing, and is used to make all of the components in the computer, not just the ROM for the bios. The cmos used to hold the bios is actually a PROM, and more correctly an EPROM, and ever more correctly an EEPROM.

But, I'm splitting hairs and there's way more to it than we need to discuss.

 

[prolfe]

CMOS is what I said above, it's a process more than a thing, and is used to make all of the components in the computer, not just the ROM for the bios. The cmos used to hold the bios is actually a PROM, and more correctly an EPROM, and ever more correctly an EEPROM.

I appreciate that little bit of info. I've always thought that the CMOS was a thing; never knew it was a method of manufacturing.

 

[Pain]

Well, it could probably be considered both a thing and a process. There's probably much information about it on google so I won't continue, or pretend I am an authority on the subject. I once worked in semi-conductor manufacturing, but it's been several years.

 

[rahul_cracker]

Thank you all very much for good answering of my doubt .Will keep watching the forum for knowledge from all of you

 

[djkrypplephite]

It's both. Some mobos will come with a fully-hardware BIOS as a backup so that in case of your BIOS being taken over by a virus, you can still use your computer.

Pretty much all BIOS' are software besides backups though.

 

[MadHacker]

Hi Rahul,
Welcome to THG forumz.
Remember, a hardware is an actual physical piece of technology, like a circuit board, a processor chip, a memory chip, etc. The CMOS is that hardware which is used when the computer first comes on. It is from this CMOS that the computer "discovers" itself.
A software is programming code that allows the user(or other pieces of software or hardware) to interact with the hardware. Any example of this is a driver that allows an operating system to work with a sound card, or an operating system that allows the user to interact with the hard drive. Most software we use today is stored on discs, but software can be stored on chips (hardware). The BIOS is such a piece of software. It is stored on the CMOS and is designed to be Read-Only. We call this type of storage ROM (Read-Only Memory). It is important to note that the BIOS can be edited, after a fashion, by "flashing". That is to say, the BIOS can be replaced by a different version, but it cannot be edited in the same way that you edit the settings on Firefox, or determine the installation location of you favorite game.

By the way, if I am in error on my technical details, please do not flame me; I am not an expert like a lot of the forum veterans (but I do aspire to be, one day).

this post is correct.
Well now that you said it was true it must be...

 

[Pain]

The bios is stored on a EEPROM, which is manufactured with a CMOS process. We could continue to split hairs. The chipset is the cmos. The ram is the cmos. The cpu, gpu, and disk controller are all the cmos. But, when people say flash the bios, or flash the cmos, we all know what it means without further explanation. In simple answer to the original question as already stated above, bios = software, cmos = hardware.

Cmos can also be used in reference to the process, but when used in the context of talking about personal computers, is understood to mean the bios.

If we're going to use Wikipedia as some end all and be all of truth:

"Instead of metal, today the gate electrodes are almost always made from a different material, polysilicon, but the name CMOS nevertheless continues to be used for the modern descendants of the original process."

"CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) refers to both a particular style of digital circuitry design, and the family of processes used to implement that circuitry on integrated circuits (chips)."

CMOS is complementary metal-oxide semiconductor and there are many variations or improvements to the basic process in use for manufacturing semiconductors.

 

[MadHacker]

Hi Rahul,
Welcome to THG forumz.
Remember, a hardware is an actual physical piece of technology, like a circuit board, a processor chip, a memory chip, etc. The CMOS is that hardware which is used when the computer first comes on. It is from this CMOS that the computer "discovers" itself.
A software is programming code that allows the user(or other pieces of software or hardware) to interact with the hardware. Any example of this is a driver that allows an operating system to work with a sound card, or an operating system that allows the user to interact with the hard drive. Most software we use today is stored on discs, but software can be stored on chips (hardware). The BIOS is such a piece of software. It is stored on the CMOS and is designed to be Read-Only. We call this type of storage ROM (Read-Only Memory). It is important to note that the BIOS can be edited, after a fashion, by "flashing". That is to say, the BIOS can be replaced by a different version, but it cannot be edited in the same way that you edit the settings on Firefox, or determine the installation location of you favorite game.

By the way, if I am in error on my technical details, please do not flame me; I am not an expert like a lot of the forum veterans (but I do aspire to be, one day).

this post is correct.
Well now that you said it was true it must be...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMOS read it yourself ,pal.nowthat i have taken the thought out of it for you
How gracious of you... I am your pal…
I'm not disagreeing with you...
I agree as well… but my agreement isn’t what makes it true either…

 

[deweycd]

Im starting to think you guys are going to have to write a book based on the amount of hairs your splitting.

 

[SciPunk]

BIOS is software. It is stored on a CMOS chip, which is a piece of hardware.

 

[Pain]

Thanks for clearing that up.