A new question I am not sure of, what do you think?

You add a second processor. What do you need to do else?

A. BIOS upgrade
B. RAM upgrade
C. Video upgrade
D. Firmware upgrade

Has anyone a good idea with references to where YOU have found the answer?

Boweise

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I don't have any specific references, but I think this is a question that can be reasoned out.

Start by eliminating the obvious wrong answers. this would be RAM and video. Neither of these has anything to do with adding a second processor.

This leaves ROM and BIOS. ROM is not something you generally upgrade. It is burned in and requires pulling a chip or something similar. This leaves BIOS. BIOS upgrades are posted all of the time for new functionality and for adding features.

Just my opinion.

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Thanks Cruss575! This was the answer I figured out as well, but I am looking for information that confirmes our ideas to be really sure about it. If you know any references, please let me know.

Boweise

[This message has been edited by Boweise (edited 01-04-2001).]

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BIOS is something that you generally upgrade each time new hardware is added -- it's usually referred to as "drivers". Firmware is generally left alone -- it can be updated with the EEPROM chips, but generally this isn't done much. Video and RAM don't have much to do with it, so I'll agree with cruss575.

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If these are the real choices, we have another perfect example of an ambiguous and poorly worded question.

Agreed, RAM and video get tossed out as possibilities, leaving BIOS and firmware.

The problem now is that in standard PC architecture, these are the same things! Now, a lot of people, including a lot of dumb experts, use "BIOS" and "CMOS" interchangably. Any mobo that supports more than one CPU is not going to need the ROM-BIOS firmware updated simply to support a second CPU. But it may need some CMOS setting. This is probably what is meant by BIOS. But it is a poor, even stupid, question.

I teach this stuff, and make it a must that my students understand the difference between BIOS and CMOS. I'm thinking that whomever wrote this question is just another one of those people who people who insist on confusing the two.

BTW, I don't agree with the way Cruss575 and Randy have described BIOS upgrades. Cruss575 seems to be confusing a non flash upgradable BIOS with ROM, and flash upgradable BIOS with BIOS. Both are BIOS code. The only difference is in the way the BIOS gets upgraded. In one, you pull the chip and replace it. In the other, you flash it. Nor do you upgrade BIOS with drivers. Drivers are pure software, not firmware.

FWIW.

-Baz

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I was going by Scottt Mueller's description of the BIOS: "BIOS is a term that describes all the device drivers in a system working together to act as an interface between the hardware and the operating system software", Upgrading and Repairing PC's, 12 Edition, p. 372.

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Good one!
In the manual for Compaq/Digital Dual Processor upgrades on Personal Workstations, they advise that higher performance processors "might require loading the latest BIOS firmware revision."
I'll have to go with the poorly worded question, but BIOS upgrade if pressed.

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Most operating systems would require some sort of os patch or something similair I don't think a bios upgrade on a system that
has hardware support for the second processor
would be necessary.... I too believe this is a poorly worded question and would hope that
one like it with those answers would never show up on an exam ...



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Thank you all for putting your thoughts in writing. It nice to see that most of you agree on the "right answer" to be BIOS upgrade. I am sure this was how the question was stated on the exam, and yes I also think it is a poorly worded question.

Boweise

[This message has been edited by Boweise (edited 01-31-2001).]

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Well, Randy, not to belabor the point, but that definition from Mueller is not a conventional way of describing the BIOS. Here's one for you, which I just grabbed off webopedia. It agrees with my understanding, and how I teach:

Pronounced "bye-ose," an acronym for basic input/output system. The BIOS is built-in software that determines what a computer can do without accessing programs from a disk. On PCs, the BIOS contains all the code required to control the keyboard, display screen, disk drives, serial communications, and a number of miscellaneous functions. [MY NOTE HERE: These are "minimal" instructions. Control and functions of all these devices can, and are typically enhanced by additional hardware and or device drivers. But those enhancements are not part of the BIOS proper.]

The BIOS is typically placed in a ROM chip that comes with the computer (it is often called a ROM BIOS). This ensures that the BIOS will always be available and will not be damaged by disk failures. It also makes it possible for a computer to boot itself. Because RAM is faster than ROM, though, many
computer manufacturers design systems so that the BIOS is copied from ROM to RAM each time the computer is booted. This is known as shadowing.

Many modern PCs have a flash BIOS, which means that the BIOS has been recorded on a flash memory chip, which can be updated if necessary.

The PC BIOS is fairly standardized, so all PCs are similar at this level (although
there are different BIOS versions). Additional DOS functions are usually added
through software modules [E.G. DRIVERS]. This means you can upgrade to a newer version of
DOS without changing the BIOS.

PC BIOSes that can handle Plug-and-Play (PnP) devices are known as PnP BIOSes, or PnP-aware BIOSes. These BIOSes are always implemented with flash memory rather than ROM.
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The only thing I would add that is missing from this webopedia definition is that the ROM BIOS is also frequently called "firmware" and is not strictly "software." Here, FWIW, is the webopedia definition of firmware:

Software (programs or data) that has been written onto read-only memory (ROM). Firmware is a combination of software and hardware. ROMs, PROMs and EPROMs that have data or programs recorded on them are firmware.
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The ROM BIOS chip is an example of firmware. So I come back to my original point about how poorly the question appears to be worded: in PC architecture, BIOS and firmware are the same thing, e.g. the BIOS *is* firmware. I'm still convinced that the question makes the common, but wrong, substitution of "BIOS" for "CMOS" and that "CMOS" is what is meant. It is hard to believe that this question was written by a true "SME."

-Baz

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