What is the difference between CMOS and BIOS?
CMOS, Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor, is the most common type of integrated circuit. CMOS refers to the design of the integrated circuit or transistor, not a particular application. Many different devices are made using CMOS technology, because it is relatively cheap to implement and has relatively low power consumption, when compared to other types of integrated circuits. BIOS is the Basic Input-Output System of a computer and the term comes from the original IBM Personal Computer. It is, in effect, a program stored in ROM (read-only memory) that the computer executes when it is first powered on. The BIOS contains information on the system configuration, which can be changed by the user or may be determined automatically, the instructions required to boot the system’s operating system from one of the attached storage devices (i.e., hard disk, optical disk, floppy disk), a set of basic I/O procedures that can be called by software programs, and diagnostic, power management, an
BIOS Short for Basic Input/Output System, BIOS is a chip located on all computer motherboards that contains instructions and setup for how your system should boot and how it operates. http://www.computerhope.com/help/bios.htm CMOS Also known as a RTC/NVRAM or CMOS RAM, CMOS is short for Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor. CMOS is an on-board semiconductor chip powered by a CMOS battery inside computers that stores information such as the system time and system settings for your computer. A CMOS is similar to the Apple Macintosh computer’s PRAM http://www.computerhope.com/help/cmos.htm Often the BIOS and CMOS can be confused because instructions may either indicate to enter the “BIOS Setup” or the “CMOS Setup”. Although the setup for BIOS / CMOS is the same, the BIOS and CMOS on the motherboard are not. If you have already read the above BIOS and CMOS definition links you should now know that the BIOS and CMOS are two different components on the motherboard. The BIOS on the motherb
Often the BIOS and CMOS can be confused because instructions may either indicate to enter the BIOS Setup or the CMOS Setup. Although the setup for BIOS / CMOS is the same, the BIOS and CMOS on the motherboard are not. If you have already read the above BIOS and CMOS definition links you should now know that the BIOS and CMOS are two different components on the motherboard. The BIOS on the motherboard contains the instructions on how the computer boots and is only modified or updated with BIOS updates, the CMOS is powered by a CMOS battery and contains your system settings and is modified and changed by entering the CMOS Setup. Although the setup is often referred to as the BIOS and CMOS setup, we suggest you only refer to the setup as “CMOS Setup” as it is more appropriate. Computer Hope often refers to the setup as BIOS and CMOS Setup to help users who are looking for one instead of the other.
CMOS and BIOS is so confusing because of the interwoven nature But Then Let’s Difene them seperately: CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) is the semiconductor technology used in the transistors that are manufactured into most of today’s computer microchips. Semiconductors are made of silicon and germanium, materials which “sort of” conduct electricity, but not enthusiastically. Areas of these materials that are “doped” by adding impurities become full-scale conductors of either extra electrons with a negative charge (N-type transistors) or of positive charge carriers (P-type transistors). In CMOS technology, both kinds of transistors are used in a complementary way to form a current gate that forms an effective means of electrical control. CMOS transistors use almost no power when not needed. As the current direction changes more rapidly, however, the transistors become hot. This characteristic tends to limit the speed at which microprocessors can operate. BIOS (basic input/
