BIOS and CMOS

[Trust_Not_123]

hey guys,

im in my curious mood and have notied that some bios's when you save, asks if you want to write to CMOS

now, i know that BIOS stands for Basic Input Output System but what does CMOS stand for??

anyway,

thanks guys

[phaza7]

Well Trust_Not.
It stands for complementary metal-oxide semiconductor(CMOS)

BEEN studing this all day & night.

[Shrekkie]

Hey

Phaza7 is right, here's a little explanation of cmos .
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/CMOS.html

Greetz,

[Trust_Not_123]

thanks guys, and what a weird name, they named it after a component?? o well, thanks for the info and i'll check out that link shrekkie

[Und3ertak3r]

thanks guys, and what a weird name, they named it after a component??

The reference it CMOS is regarding CMOS Memory.. or NON Volitile memory.. this comes from the early days with the "PC" .. Once motherboards moved away from switch settings and allowed a greater software controle of motherboard operation and settings.. the BIOS needed some place to store this information .. some systems saved this to a drive (floppy or HDD depending on your wealth) ultimatly this information was saved to a Non-Volitile memory.. and as it would happen .. due to the devices low power requirements esp in system standby mode (memory was battery backed up) CMOS was the prefered memory type,,


not the best with these explainations.. hope that with the link above helps..

Cheers

[Trust_Not_123]

no, i fully understand how it works. i was just curious as to why the named it after the actuall component. i mean, they havent named anything else by what components they have.

anyways, thanks for the goss