MSI says it's dropping BIOS in favor of UEFI

Computer maker MSI will move away from mainboards that have the BIOS firmware interface starting this year, according to a THINQ interview with a company spokesperson. Instead, it will begin to phase in Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI)-based mainboards starting at the end of this year, with more widespread adoption due in three years. UEFI will not be a premium feature either, and show up in a wide range, from entry-level to high-end.

Intel's Sandy Bridge-based mainboards will be the first ones to get UEFI from MSI. UEFI is a more user-friendly point-and-click interface. It is also key to a PC booting from a drive larger than 2TB, Seagate told THINQ.

UEFI implementation poses certain challenges, MSI says, including the larger size of a UEFI system. Traditional BIOS boards will not have the onboard ROM to support it, and UEFI is not compatible with all boards. UEFI is also programmed in C, whereas assembly code is used for BIOS.

Apple has been using EFI since its switch to Intel-based systems in 2006. It helped keep Apple's pre-boot visual elements as well as let devices like Bluetooth keyboards and mice work outside of Mac OS X.

By Electronista Staff