Re: Railways and the Millennium Bug

Chris Stratton (stratton.chris.cp@bhp.com.au)
Fri, 1 May 1998 08:33:39 +1000

I would argue that BIOS is software that is stored in ROM. Quoting from one
of my textbooks "The BIOS (Basic Input Output System) is the program that
your computer runs first. It provides the most basic functions of your
computer, and allows it to load the operating system and perform low level
tasks like reading the keyboard and displaying information on the screen".
With a lot of computers you can only upgrade the BIOS by replacing the ROM
chips. Others (like IBM) are equipped with Flash BIOS which can be upgraded
by running a special program. According to the instructions for upgrading
Flash BIOS, if the power is interrupted during the upgrade, the mainboard
will be rendered useless and will need to be replaced. I suspect it could be
fixed but would have to go back to the factory and it would cost more than
getting a new one.
Regards,
--
Chris Stratton
Wollongong, NSW, Australia
stratton.chris.cp@bhp.com.au


Alex Borodin wrote in message <354813AD.3FEE7024@qr.com.au>...
Eben Levy wrote:


> > The Y2K bug is actually more a firmware problem rather than a software
> > problem. The reason is that although most modern operating systems will
> > work fine into the next millenium, the PC BIOS is the critical stumbling
> > block. Regardless of how good your OS is, it still has to grab the
> > date and time from the system BIOS, and if that's wrong, then so is
> > your software. Fortunately, most semi-critical systems can be manually
> > set on New Years Day of 2000 without too much of a problem. Critical
> > systems have to be upgraded.
>
> IT is not the BIOS that is the problem, it is the software loaded into
bios. The
> only thing lower then software is hardware, what tells hardware what todo?
> Software.


If you read carefully my original post (requoted here), you will see
that I used the term "firmware", which is precisely the correct term
to use because the BIOS is somewhere between being true hardware
and true software.


Your quest for precision, however, is appreciated. :-)


Shalom

--
Alex Borodin - Software and Systems Engineer - Queensland Rail
Ph: +61-7-3235-2482  Fax:+61-7-3235-2747
"He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven
there shall no evil touch thee." - Job 5:19