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3BIOS: Simply better protection

        A motherboard is only as good as its BIOS. Though a majority of motherboard vendors use some iteration of Award BIOS, implementations of this software in the shipping hardware differs greatly in function and performance.

The purpose of this paper is to differentiate between the various types of hardware BIOS available, the inherent capabilities of those technologies and offer what we feel is a superior approach to significantly reducing your support costs and protecting your buyer’s investment, or in a word, create superior value for the customer.

Defining the problem:

Fundamentally, the BIOS on every motherboard faces two threats – virus infection and accidental over writing by users. These two problems are related in that they can be remedied by eliminating free access to motherboard BIOS.

Viruses

Generally, viruses designed to infiltrate and destroy motherboard BIOS must be able to write and rewrite to effectively infect a system, propagate and eventually render the system inoperable. Additionally, because the Flash ROM (read-only memory) used for BIOS on every motherboard can only be written to a limited number of times and continued re-infection will eventually render the system unusable. Further, in order to bring the motherboard back to a usable condition, the Flash ROM must be replaced.

For most end-users, opening the case let alone replacing a Flash ROM is out of the question. Therefore, as long as the PC is under warranty, the user will expect that you or your downstream channel service it. With gross margins and retail margins already at survival levels, servicing even one PC multiple times can wipe out the profit on several machines, let alone performing service on dozens or even hundreds of machines for an avoidable problem. Windows problems, as evidenced by the continuous stream of destructive viruses and the still dismal state system stability, often alone are enough to render the average service contract profitless.

Over writing

In terms of failure rates, the inadvertent over writing of BIOS is a more serious problem than viruses in some markets and market segments. Despite the fact that this type of BIOS failure occurs because of user ignorance and, from our perspective, shoddy design, the result is very much the same – a PC in need of service.

Perhaps the most common reason a user would inadvertently over write BIOS is because he/she has used an incompatible Flash utility. There are dozens of third party and manufacturer specific Flash utilities available. It isn’t unusual for several of these utilities to be installed on a single system. The installation of a single peripheral or upgrade could render a system unusable.

Solution A: The wrong way

The most commonly available solution to BIOS over write and virus corruption problems are the so-called double BIOS solutions. These products, though an improvement over traditional single BIOS products, fundamentally do not address the problems at hand.

Double BIOS motherboards include two Flash ROM chips. Each chip contains a copy of system BIOS. The first chip acts as a master BIOS (i.e. the default boot device) and a second acts a slave (figure 1), or back up copy. Should the master fail, the slave will allow the PC to boot, but only after a lengthy time-out period (i.e. one minute or longer). After the PC boots, the slave BIOS will, if possible refresh the master, allowing the PC to boot from the master on the next start up.  

Figure 1.
                                     

The approach represents a failure to address the fundamental problem – free and repeated access to arguably the most important software any PC contains – BIOS. For example, should the master become unusable because of a fatal over write or hardware failure caused by a virus, the PC can still boot, but only after a significantly longer time. This time adds up quickly. Moreover, because viruses and users still have free access to BIOS, it is only a matter of time before the slave BIOS fails in turn.

Double BIOS motherboards give you more time between fatal system failures, but do nothing to keep them from happening in the first place. These failures will become your RMAs!

Solution B: 3BIOS from Chaintech.

Clearly, the best way to keep BIOS from failing is to prevent inadvertent over writes and virus corruption in the first place. Chaintech’s 3BIOS technology provides superior BIOS protection – it’s cost effective and fool-proof:

1.        Flash BIOS protection

2.        Embedded Flash Utility

3.        Peer-to-peer TwinBIOS

With Flash BIOS protection, viruses are kept out. Access to BIOS is provided via a Hot Key. Moreover, pressing the Hot Key automatically launches Chaintech’s proprietary on-chip Flash Utility, which excludes the use of incompatible third party utilities. This approach is simplicity at its best – solve the problem by excluding the possibility of it happening. Users and tech support personnel still have access to BIOS, but in a rational, controlled way.

The third leg of Chaintech’s 3BIOS is its revolutionary TwinBIOS peer-to-peer technology. Because Chaintech doesn’t rely on master/slave-type BIOS, in the event of a failure, boot up is fast. Moreover, because these two BIOS are independent of each (figure 2), as well as OS dependencies an users can install BIOS for a different operating system or configure the second BIOS as a troubleshooting set up.

Figure 2.
                                        

The benefits of 3BIOS equipped Chaintech motherboards does not end here – we include a built-in HDD Instant Recovery utility, as well as our revolutionary valued software bundle of user-friendly, high-value system utilities.

For full details on shipping Chaintech motherboards, 3BIOS technology and the full range of Chaintech products, please feel free to contact Ron Carlson at the numbers and address listed below.