Any word on EFI Motherboards being released?

[James]

I am really looking forward to the new EFI standard. It's been a long time in coming, and it could definitely be used.

For those of you who don't know, EFI is Extensible Firmware Interface, and it is slated to (eventually) replace the BIOS. The beautiful thing is twofold.

1. It's an open standard, which means that all of the hardware companies can offer input on it.

2. It's no longer 16-bit code based, which is what the current (and pretty much all BIOS through history) are based on. This will help with the advancements in future hardware.

Imagine being able to boot into either a text or GUI interface, and being able to access the internet, all your hardware, do a quick hdd to hdd copy, all from the "BIOS" replacement interface.

Definitely psyched about this. The only demo I've seen of the technology was an Intel board that was using the EFI to store the BIOS, rather than an EEPROM chip. Intel spearheaded the idea, so they have a lot more info than other companies.

Here's a nice article that has an overview of the technology:

http://developer.intel.com/technology/efi/

http://linuxdevices.com/articles/AT3790951165.html

http://news.com.com/Battle+brews+ove...3-5654272.html (Has a mention of the Technology)

http://press.arrivenet.com/tec/article.php/645407.html

[JakeDeez]

Maybe around the same time as BTX, about a month after never.

[Motoman]

Yup - I'd bet a few bucks that stuff never sees the light of day.

[Candyman]

There are rumblings that Apple will use EFI in their Intel-based PowerMacs. It would be a pretty good way to effectively block out commodity PC users from installing OS X on their machines. However, this is coming out of the Apple rumor mill, so don't take it too seriously...

[I4one]

hehe;
I was posting the same guess early yesterday morn (Apple related) - along with my "Now they finally found a way to instill their oppressive, fascist DRM" rant
but Sharky's was 'updating' while I was writing - and into oblivion my message went

[Candyman]

Now, now...Apple's DRM isn't half as fascist and oppressive as Microsoft's is. Compare the DRM on music files from the iTunes store (a few headers and password protection, easily removed without affecting quality) with the DRM available on Windows Media files (they can specify how many times the file can be played or how long it remains valid, no easy way to remove it without reencoding). Apple's was a compromise that would ease the minds of the RIAA, et al. enough to allow them to sell music; Microsoft's was a bid to give content providers more control.

Apple also doesn't put any kind of copy protection on their OS install disks, nor do they ever check to see if it is pirated. Compare that to Windows.

[I4one]

Now, now...Apple's DRM isn't half as fascist and oppressive as Microsoft's is. Compare the DRM on music files from the iTunes store (a few headers and password protection, easily removed without affecting quality) with the DRM available on Windows Media files (they can specify how many times the file can be played or how long it remains valid, no easy way to remove it without reencoding). Apple's was a compromise that would ease the minds of the RIAA, et al. enough to allow them to sell music; Microsoft's was a bid to give content providers more control.

Apple also doesn't put any kind of copy protection on their OS install disks, nor do they ever check to see if it is pirated. Compare that to Windows.

you misunderstood;
I combined a sentence, but only meant the part about OSX running on x86 for Apple -- along with that - the Wintel rant....even though itunes should not be DRMed either - Apple's not even CLOSE to being the oppressor that others are trying to be.

[Johnmcl7]

Maybe around the same time as BTX, about a month after never.

Dell are already shipping BTX systems...

John

[James]

Well, if Dell's doing it, so should we!

Seriously though, EFI is one of those new technologies that I think should really be part of the "great PC reform of '05" that we are seeing.

Along with SATA, SAS, and PCIe. EFI is a good technology that has found it's time.

Or so I hope.