How BIOS Works

One of the most common uses of Flash memory is for the basic input/output system of your computer, commonly known as the BIOS (pronounced "bye-ose"). On virtually every computer available, the BIOS makes sure all the other chips, hard drives, ports and CPU function together.

Every desktop and laptop computer in common use today contains a microprocessor as its central processing unit. The microprocessor is the hardware component. To get its work done, the microprocessor executes a set of instructions known as software (see How Microprocessors Work for details). You are probably very familiar with two different types of software:

* The operating system - The operating system provides a set of services for the applications running on your computer, and it also provides the fundamental user interface for your computer. Windows 98 and Linux are examples of operating systems. (See How Operating Systems Work for lots of details.)
* The applications - Applications are pieces of software that are programmed to perform specific tasks. On your computer right now you probably have a browser application, a word processing application, an e-mail application and so on. You can also buy new applications and install them.

How Operating Systems Work

When you turn on your computer, it's nice to think that you're in control. There's the trusty computer mouse, which you can move anywhere on the screen, summoning up your music library or Internet browser at the slightest whim. Although it's easy to feel like a director in front of your desktop or laptop, there's a lot going on inside, and the real man behind the curtain handling the necessary tasks is the operating system. ­

­Most desktop or laptop PCs come pre-loaded with Microsoft Windows. Macintosh computers come pre-loaded with Mac OS X. Many corporate servers use the Linux or UNIX operating systems. The operating system (OS) is the first thing loaded onto the computer -- without the operating system, a computer is useless.
­More recently, operating systems have started to pop up in smaller computers as well. If you like to tinker with electronic devices, you're probably pleased that operating systems can now be found on many of the devices we use every day, from cell phones to wireless access points. The computers used in these little devices have gotten so powerful that they can now actually run an operating system and applications. The computer in a typical modern cell phone is now more powerful than a desktop computer from 20 years ago, so this progression makes sense and is a natural development.

The purpose of an operating system is to organize and control hardware and software so that the device it lives in behaves in a flexible but predictable way. In this article, we'll tell you what a piece of software must do to be called an operating system, show you how the operating system in your deskto

How ROM Works

Read-only memory (ROM), also known as firmware, is an integrated circuit programmed with specific data when it is manufactured. ROM chips are used not only in computers, but in most other electronic items as well. ­­ ­

How Removable Storage Works

Removable storage has been around almost as long as the computer itself. Early removable storage was based on magnetic tape like that used by an audio cassette. Before that, some computers even used paper punch cards to store information!

We've come a long way since the days of punch cards. New removable storage devices can store hundreds of megabytes (and even gigabytes) of data on a single disk, cassette, card or cartridge. In this article, you will learn about the three major storage technologies. We'll also talk about which devices use each technology and what the future holds for this medium. But first, let's see why you would want removable storage

Does adding more RAM to your computer make it faster?

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RAM eliminates the need to
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Will adding more RAM to your computer make it run any faster? See more computer hardware pictures.

One topic you might hear people discussing when they're talking shop about computers is how much random access memory (RAM) they need to add to their computer. Up to a point, adding RAM will normally cause your computer to seem faster on certain types of operations. RAM is important because it eliminates the need to "swap" programs in and out.

When you run a program such as a word processor or an Internet browser, the microprocessor in your computer pulls the executable file (.exe) off the hard disk and loads it into RAM. Large programs like Microsoft Word or Excel use large amounts of memory. The microprocessor also pulls in a number of shared dynamic link libraries (DLLs) -- shared pieces of code used by multiple applications. The DLLs take many more megabytes.
­Then the microprocessor loads in the data files at which you want to look, which might total several megabytes if you are looking at more than one document or browsing a page with a lot of graphics. So a big application can easily take 100 megabytes of RAM or more, which can slow your system down significantly if there isn't enough memory. On your machine, at any given time you might have the following applications running:

* ­­­A word processor
* A spreadsheet
* An e-mail program
* A drawing program
* Three or four browser windows
* A fax program
* A Telnet session

­ Besides all of those applications, the operating system itself is taking up a good bit of space. Everything together may need more RAM than your machine has. Where does all the extra RAM space come from?

Introduction to Mac OS X Technology Overview

e-on Software has introduced its first Mac product, Vue d'Esprit 4, at this week's Macworld San Francisco. For Mac OS X only, it's a landscape generator that includes SolidGrowth, a vegetation synthesis and rendering technology.
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Vue d'Esprit 4 is the first e-on product for the Mac platform, but it won't be the last. It's the first of a series, President Nicholas Phelps told MacCentral. From now on the company's products will be released for the Mac and Windows platforms simultaneously. And look for all the Mac products to be Mac OS X only.

"We actually started a version Vue d'Esprit 4 for Mac OS 9, but scrapped it when Apple shipped their newest operating system," Phelps said. "Vue d'Esprit 4 is totally Mac OS X native."

Vue d'Esprit is optimized for the creation, rendering and animation of natural scenery. Version 4 features a completely new interface design optimized for ease-of-use and productivity, he said. Its rendering features include volumetric effects, glowing materials, lens flares, stars and planets, rocks, and more.

Vue d'Esprit lets you use outdoor lighting algorithms in tandem with a variety of rendering effects to produce natural looking pictures. Objects, materials, atmospheres, clouds, waves, and just about anything can be animated due to e-on's Dynamic Motion Reaction technology. Advanced users can also fine tune their animations with access to all animation properties, time spline control, motion blur, forward dynamics, field interlacing, flicker reduction, non-square pixels, animated alpha, and Z buffers for compositing.

You can link objects to create complex animated structures and take precise control of all animation properties by editing keyframes directly and adjusting the flow of time. Plus, you can preview your animations with a customizable animation preview.

The application is open to other 3D apps. You can import models created with other software using an extensive set of import filters. Objects created with TrueSpace, 3D Studio, Lightwave, or Poser can be imported.

SOLARIS DERIVATIVE

Shortly after the publication of OpenSolaris Jörg Schilling announced his own distribution SchilliX 0.1 on 17-6-2005 for the download. It consists entirely of Open source software and was supplemented with the GCC. The live CD offers the installation on USB-sticks or fixed disk. A graphical interface shall be integrated later in a next release of this developer related distribution. SchilliX 0.5.1 which contains for the first time a graphical interface and based on OpenSolaris Nevada build 35 was published on March 2nd, 2006.

The BeleniX distribution was derived from the OpenSolaris project as a live CD. The source of the choosen name BeleniX is the sungod Belenos from Celtic mythology. The first public release of this Community developed project was BeleniX 0.1 in 4-10-2005. The version 0.3 was published on 18-12-2005, as a user interface Xfce 4.2.0 is used.

The operating system NexentaOS consists of the OpenSolaris Kernel and Solaris runtime files. The unusual feature lies in the connection of Solaris with Linux technology. For this operating system only free software is used from the GNU Debian project. Gnome is the preferred GUI, further software like the Apache HTTP server, mySQL and the Mozilla Firefox browser are also contained. On 22-2-2006 the 3rd alpha version of NexentaOS (code name elatte) was published.