Phoenix Readies One Second Bios Boot Technology

Author Gordon Kelly
Published 28th Sep 2009
Phoenix Readies One Second Bios Boot Technology
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The optimised start-up of Windows 7 and the proliferation of SSDs should help greatly reduce boot times for users over the next few years, but some of the problem lies much deeper: in the bios. Until now...

Bios maker Phoenix has given a public demo of 'Instant Boot', a UEFI based bios which fixes the age old problem of how to turn on all the elements of a computer. Currently a bios will turn on one device at a time meaning you will wait 10-12 seconds before your PC even starts loading Windows. By contrast Instant Boot can turn on all devices simultaneously cutting that time to just one second.


The result is a demo which shows how a Lenovo T400s laptop can boot Windows 7 into a useable state in roughly 10 seconds. Caveats are the T400s is fitted with an SSD, has a clean install of Windows 7 and Aero is turned off. That said, it still represents a potentially important step forward for the PC bios. Encouragingly, Phoenix also says Instant Boot can be streamlined to be even faster, though how we'd get any opportunity to enter a bios before it was gone at that speed who knows?

As for real world deployment Phoenix hasn't revealed any partners at this stage, but its bios' are prolific so it would seem likely manufacturers will jump at it. Furthermore while alternative quick boot technologies like SplashTop are nice they are simply papering over cracks. We'd like those cracks plastered...

Link:
via notebooks.com

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comment Xiphias said on 28th September 2009

This'll kill a few power supplies.

comment ChaosDefinesOrder said on 28th September 2009

RE: how to go into BIOS settings - it'll probably be a case of holding down a key while you press the power button, much like how you get into the boot-loader mode of WiMo handsets

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