Last month, Gigabyte announced it was extending its proprietary DualBIOS technology to every single Gigabyte motherboard, with immediate effect. Gigabyte's DualBIOS provides a backup BIOS that automatically repairs or even replaces the primary BIOS when necessary - without any user intervention!
First introduced by Gigabyte in 1999, DualBIOS has traditionally been reserved for only high-end Gigabyte motherboards due to the cost of the additional BIOS chip.
But what is the BIOS?
The BIOS is the initial boot-up software that allows PCs to find and check all the hardware that the operating system needs to run with. If the BIOS is somehow physically damaged or attacked by a computer virus, the operating system will not be able to boot-up and the PC will be useless.
BIOS - which stands for Basic Input Output System - is a piece of software, or “firmware”, which communicates with all the different parts of the computer before the operating system boots up.
This software runs to check the different components that are attached to the PC by starting them and performing basic system tests.
While it is not so common in this day and age, the BIOS can be damaged; for example, when the firmware is incorrectly updated, or by faulty components in the PC or even by power failures when the PC starts up. There is also one known virus - the Chernobyl or CIH virus - that can actually wipe the firmware.
How does Gigabyte's DualBIOS work?
DualBIOS is actually two BIOSes, with one acting like a backup. If one is damaged or loses the software, the second one takes over to allow you to use the PC again, or will enable you to replace or “reflash” the software on the damaged BIOS. This reduces the cost of system downtime and of having to replace the motherboard in the PC.
Gigabyte says most motherboard RMA issues (Return Merchandise Authorisation - or where faulty goods are returned to the manufacturer for repair or replacement) are related to the BIOS.
Not only has DualBIOS drastically reduced RMA rates, we don't even if a BIOS has been damaged, since the PC continues to work after one fails.
There have also been other BIOS advancements. Some even have the ability to self-repair when the BIOS is damaged by reading the BIOS image from either a hard drive, where the image could be stored without the user knowing, or from another medium like a USB flash drive.
Having identified faulty capacitors as the second-highest cause of RMA goods, Gigabyte is now manufacturing all of its motherboards using the best-quality Japanese solid capacitors.
Besides these ultra-durable solid capacitors, with low RRDS Mosfets and ferrite core chokes, other noteworthy Gigabyte features differentiating its motherboards from the competition include:
* DES (dynamic energy saver), which uses dynamic six-gear switching and New VRD11.1 design; and
* Ultra durable 3, which uses two ounces of copper for both the Power and Ground layers, which delivers dramatically lower system temperatures, improved energy efficiency and enhanced stability for over-clocking.
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