BIOS
A computer’s BIOS contains code that first executes at system startup. In the early days of personal computers, the BIOS provided a set of programming interfaces that abstracted the details of peripheral interfaces such as keyboards and video displays.
In modern PCs, the BIOS performs system testing and peripheral device configuration during startup. After that process has been completed, the processor (under software control) interacts with peripheral devices directly without further intervention by the BIOS.
Early PCs stored the BIOS code in a read-only memory (ROM) chip on the motherboard. This code was permanently programmed and could not be altered. Modern motherboards generally store the motherboard BIOS in a reprogrammable flash memory device. This allows BIOS updates to be installed to add new features or to fix problems found in earlier firmware versions. The process of updating the BIOS is commonly known as flashing the BIOS.
One downside of BIOS...