Chapter 5: Firmware Flashcards
What does a computer need in order for a keyboard for example to communicate with the CPU
A controller chip
What does a controller chip require in order to communicate with the CPU
A data bus
How did early computers deal with the problem of having too many controller chips?
A culmination of all the chips into a north bridge and a south bridge
How do modern day computers deal with the problem of too many controller chips
uses controllers built into the cpu itself and external to the cpu is the (Intel “Platform Controller Hub”) Chipset
What does the Chipset do
Extends the data hub to every device on the pc
How does the keyboard send a keystroke to the chipset
There is a scanner located on the keyboard that looks for keystrokes and each key has a specific scan code that it send to the keyboard chipset
What is the scan code specifically in relation to the cpu
and instruction set that tells the cpu what to do
how does the keyboard chipset send the scan code to the CPU
puts it onto the EDB
What is the BIOS
The BIOS or basic input output system teaches the CPU what devices are held onboard the computer and facilitates communication between
What memory is the BIOS
ROM
What is ROM important
Non volatile memory to facilitate anytime use of the bios and services such as the keyboard controller to communicate between devices
What is ROM typically called
Flash ROM
Why does every computer have a flash rom chip called system rom
Contains code that allows your cpu to talk to basic hardware (BIOS)
What are the hundreds of services (programs) loaded onto the System ROM chip called?
System BIOS or System Firmware
What are modern day systems firmware programming called
UEFI
What does UEFI Support the BIOS doesnt
• UEFI supports booting to partitions larger than 2.2 TB.
• UEFI firmware is native 32- or 64-bit; this lets the manufacturers
include lots of features for setup and diagnoses.
• UEFI handles all boot-loading duties; no more jumping from boot
sector to boot sector.
• UEFI is portable to other chip types, not just 16-bit x86.
How does the BIOS deal with changing hardware types if ROM is read only?
Stores this information on the CMOS chip
What is apples version of UEFI
EFI
What is it called when the computer knows when someone has opened the case?
Chassis intrusion detection system
What is it called when a pc can be located after it has been stolen
LoJack
What is TPM
Trusted Platform Module used for encryption processes
What is Bring your own BIOS (BYOB)
If you need to add onto your system and your system doesn’t support that device than the device will hold its own bios
What is a device driver?
A file located on the computers HDD that contains all the commands needed for the CPU to talk to the device
How does the computer start the POST program from no power to power on
Power on –> PSU sends power down the power good wire –> this wakes the cpu up and then the cpu recalls memory that directs it to the ROM POST program
What happens after the computer successfully posts
Loads the bootstrap loader which finds the OS
What happens when the bootstrap loader is loaded into memory
It identifies the boot order to check for boot sectors on each device –> once it finds an OS it hands the power over to the OS and unloads from memory with the OS taking its place
what is flashings the rom
Updating the Flash rom either through the internet or a local drive
