What is the difference between BIOS and CMOS?

Question

What is the difference between BIOS and CMOS? Is there anyone who can elaborately explain me the difference?

Answer 1

BIOS is the proper name of the program / code that controls all of the basic hardware and loads the operating system.

CMOS is a term for the type of chip that the BIOS stores it's settings on. Some people mistakenly call the BIOS this, but a CMOS can be used for many different purposes besides a BIOS.

Answer 2

Many people use the terms BIOS (basic input/output system) and CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) to refer to the same thing. Though they are related, they are distinct and separate components of a computer. The BIOS is the program that starts a computer up, and the CMOS is where the BIOS stores the date, time, and system configuration details it needs to start the computer.

The BIOS is a small program that controls the computer from the time it powers on until the time the operating system takes over. The BIOS is firmware, which means it cannot store variable data.

CMOS is a type of memory technology, but most people use the term to refer to the chip that stores variable data for startup. A computer's BIOS will initialize and control components like the floppy and hard drive controllers and the computer's hardware clock, but the specific parameters for startup and initializing components are stored in the CMOS.

Answer 3

Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) (pronounced "see-moss", IPA: /siːmɔːs, ˈsiːmɒs/), is a major class of integrated circuits. CMOS technology is used in microprocessors, microcontrollers, static RAM, and other digital logic circuits. CMOS technology is also used for a wide variety of analog circuits such as image sensors, data converters, and highly integrated transceivers for many types of communication. Frank Wanlass got a patent on CMOS in 1967 (US Patent 3,356,858).

read more:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMOS

In computing, the BIOS (pronounced /ˈbaɪoʊs/) is an acronym that stands for the Basic Input/Output System according to the IBM Personal Computer Technical Reference manual[1] [2] or the punctuational variants Basic Input Output System, or Basic Input-Output System.



BIOS in part refers to the firmware code run by a PC when first powered on, which is a type of boot loader. The primary function of the BIOS is to identify and initialize system component hardware (such as the video display card, hard disk, and floppy). This is to prepare the machine into a known low capability state, so other software programs stored on various media can be loaded, executed, and given control of the PC.[3] This process is known as booting, or booting up, which is short for bootstrapping. Among other classes of computers, the generic terms boot monitor, boot loader or boot ROM were commonly used. Some Sun and Macintosh PowerPC computers used Open Firmware for this purpose. There are a few alternatives for Legacy BIOS in the x86 world: Extensible Firmware Interface, Open Firmware (used on the OLPC XO-1) and coreboot.

read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS