Industry Support? Fail.
Wikipedia’s EFI page shows a list of EFI-toting systems in 2008 from IBM, HP, and HP Compaq, adds more systems for 2009 from IBM and Dell, and refers to systems mentioned in an UEFI Forum document. The 2008 list also mentions MSI motherboards with ClickBIOS. Since we’re closer to the component companies than to system builders, we decided to look around and get a feeling on where the big motherboard vendors are with their EFI ambitions.
Asus:
“We currently offer an EFI solution for the P5Q Deluxe, but it is still in beta status. It will depened on public demand whether or not we add EFI updates for additional platforms.”
Asus’s EFI software for the P5Q Deluxe is available here. A thread on the Asus forums still contains a lot of bug reports on this, though.
Foxconn:
“Currently, our boards do not use the Unified Extensible Firmware Interace feature and we don’t have products under development utilizing this type of BIOS.”
Gigabyte:
“We’re working on possibly bringing UEFI to our products, but we don’t have a timeframe yet.”
Intel:
“An increasing number of platforms will be outfit with UEFI, rather than a conventional BIOS.”
However, we found that Intel introduced limitations to partitions larger than 2TB. Although UEFI could have an operating system boot from such a large partition when using the GPT (GUID Partition Table) instead of the MBR, Intel says that the “RAID option ROM will only allow a RAID volume to be bootable if it is < 2TB.”
MSI:
“MSI shipped an UEFI-enabled platform with ClickBIOS based on the P45 chipset, but the product has reached end of life. ”
Moving On
We understand that this area is still new, but it appears as if the key motherboard makers aren’t very receptive to the obviously desirable system interface. The processes behind these decisions are undoubtedly complex, and we don’t want to overrate this yet. But we also believe that it’s about time for the industry to seriously look at making the switch. There should at least be a clear commitment to making certain platforms upgradeable to UEFI when necessary. Otherwise, I wouldn’t want to buy an expensive motherboard knowing that support might not last long.
EFI-based features, such as integrated overclocking functionality, might still have to be developed, so we decided not to look at different motherboards with UEFI support and make judgements based on premature or hesitant solutions. But there is one scenario that will actually require UEFI soon: if you want to boot from a partition that is larger than 2TB, you positively need UEFI and GPT.
Storage appliances that potentially exceed 2TB capacity by utilizing RAID technology already cross this line when used as eSATA-based boot volumes. Therefore, we decided to pick one of the more advanced UEFI implementations and look at whether or not we could work on it using high-capacity system drives.
I don't trust that LaCie enclosure not to cut off the life support to my hibernation pod or try to sever my EV suit's umbilical.
have been using EFI on various HP model itanium servers. it is quite nice what it can do. however it needs major modifications for desktop use (a friendly GUI for a start).
mmm, not sure I understand, why dont they just revise the current BIOS so it illuminates some of the limitations and have the benefit of not replacing something that has worked for 25 years...
Surely there are people in the world smart enough to do that.
Oh boy, you missed the mark on the PS/2.
It was released in 1987, and IBM never liked the term MCA, but in any event, it was for Microchannel Architecture.
However, not all PS/2s were Microchannel. The numbers below 50 were all AT or PC bus machines.
I don't know what it had to do with BIOS clones. It was a different hardware slot, and prevented cloning of bus architecture, because IBM had many patents on the underlying technology. Of course, they eventually made companies pay for even AT-Bus (often incorrectly referred to as ISA) machines, when their patents were accepted. There was really no reason to worry about BIOS cloning, since other companies were succesful already in getting compatibles without directly copying the underlying BIOS (although, none of them had BASIC built into ROM, but then, who ever used that anyway?).
It did greatly simplify installing new hardware. Instead of the obnoxious playing with jumpers and switches to find unused IRQs and memory spaces, you'd get a reference disk with the device and you'd run it. That was it. It doesn't sound like much now in the land of plug and play, but it was a HUGE improvement.
Microchannel also wasn't purely 32-bit. The PS/2 50 and 60 were both 16-bit machines. Of the initially released machines (Model 30, 50, 60, and 80), only the Model 80 had 32-bit slots.
PS/2s were probably the best made PCs, at least the Microchannel models. They would smash the lousy Lian Li cases (which represent high end now) like they were made of paper. The desktop versions had no cables in them, and could be taken apart in five minutes without any tools. They were extremely reliable as well. Of course, they were expensive as Hell. If memory serves me corretly, the PS/2 Model 50 costed $3598 in 1987, and that was the cheapest Microchannel machine released. It had a really, really slow hard disk too, which always made me laugh. They finally got rid of it (on the 50z) because it got so many complaints, only for it to migrate to the Model 30. Why they thought they needed to keep making this albatross was always funny to me, but they did. It was just soooooo slow.
That thing's not even backwards-compatible with actual motherboards. The only reason that could make me adopt UEFI is to "flash it" somehow in my current motherboard. And if you can't boot over 2 TB, bring the old DDO's back! Let the hard drive makers to provide a solution. I know current BIOSes are overpatched and overextended, but you can't just shoot in the head a technology used for 25 years. It's like "let's remove the driving wheel of all cars, tomorrow". "Transition" is the word. UEFI is not ready yet. Period.
Motherboard manufacturers(people who know lots about these things) arent going to it.
Consumers arent going to it.
2 people at toms hardware really arent going to change anyone's mind.
Yes bios is aging and old. The reality though... unless uefi was bringing something to the table like openstandards and thusly open source firmware for all motherboards... at least something if not that. Hell it's kind of the complete opposite isnt it? They are pretty much moving toward open source bios isnt tagging along. That's a pretty good chunk of people who have a clue about the tech; who are going to look at this with contempt. The on your fence people looking for reviews who find both sides and pretty much everyone who is educated on this subject is more or less uninterested in it; if not hate it.
As someone who isnt in the educated group. All I see is no value in touching this. Infact it almost certainly is a bad idea to get into it. RDRam anyone?
Excellent article, I've been musing about this myself but never got around to reading up on it. Shame to get official confirmation that motherboard makers are so far behind though.
The current BIOS really needs to be done away with.
Much like PATA, Serial and Parallel ports, PCI slots, Floppy connectors, PS/2 connectors, FireWire or the other odds and ends of legacy hardware interfaces that we still pay to have added into modern systems.
Macs been using efi for a while now!
have been using EFI on various HP model itanium servers. it is quite nice what it can do. however it needs major modifications for desktop use (a friendly GUI for a start).
not to mention ia64 bootable utilities.
There is little market need right now; there is little that the end user immediately sees as "must haves" in its current state. No market equals no manufacturer willing to stick its rep on it in any real way. Dead on arrival.
Great Article Patrick and Achim! I was unfamiliar with this new boot process, but it sounds very intriguing. I believe with the new higher capacity drives that are coming to the market, it won't be long before the community will start really driving the MB manufacturers to step up to the plate. Lets face it, as computers continue to evolve, the average joe is starting to make use of higher storage capacities and faster read/write capabilities. Everything is moving to HD and which equates for better storage solutions. As far as overclocking goes, I can see the UEFI allowing for greater overclocking flexibilities and possibly more stability across different OS's that us, the enthusiasts, have stored on our computers.
Who cares how it handles RAID or if you can partition large sections of a drive? For the average gamer/computer user these points do not matter whatsoever.
Wow another paradigm shift in the way we will work with our motherboards. I guess the days of the X58, and P55 are numbered and newer ones will steadily replace them! I hope we can actually "download: these bio's ainstead on our "older" boards....
Macs been using efi for a while now!
Too bad a 2TB+ hard drive placed in a mac costs an additional $250+ for no reason at all.
Good luck placing it in there yourself without voiding their warranty.
I read this article and i still don't see any benefits of UEFI. I don't think we need it, BIOS we have now is good enough and i think Industry don't see any benefits of UEFI. Having said that, move on.
McShasta
Too bad a 2TB+ hard drive placed in a mac costs an additional $250+ for no reason at all. Good luck placing it in there yourself without voiding their warranty.
Every Mac that has a replacible or additional harddrive bays allow the use of standard harddrives. Same price as PC's.
I hope toms hardware will digg deeper. Since no one article on the net has covered enough details. Why is BIOS bad? What will UEFI brings that i can not do today.
It points out that UEFI in itself is like an OS. Which is true, as Linus has put it, UEFI is adding another complex layer. BIOS is good because it is Simple.
With tweaked SSD and systems. Intel has proved that an Linux system can be booted in less then 4 seconds. I dont know how many seconds BIOS contributed to this time, but my guess is UEFI wont make it that much faster.
So, what is the point of UEFI, can we just cleaned up BIOS instead?
Would love someone to tells us the details.
I have to say that I was waiting for the change. Just bought the DP55KG and didn't even know I could impliment UEFI. Can't wait until it becomes the norm. Been using it on the Itanium machines we have at work and I like it especially in multiboot scenarios.