Intel will abandon Legacy BIOS in 2020

The Basic Input / Output System (BIOS) of computers a year ago celebrated its 35th anniversary. However, most likely, she is not destined to live up to the 40th jubilee. Intel developer Brian Richardson said during the Fall 2017 UEFI Plugfest conference that by 2020 the company will only support UEFI Class 3, that is, it will completely abandon the Legacy BIOS interface in favor of UEFI (see KDPV).

Over the decades of its existence, the classic BIOS has incorporated many “crutches” causing multiple compatibility problems. In addition, the immutability of the system over the years led to manifested hardware limitations (16-bit processor mode, a maximum of 1 MB of addressed memory, etc.), performance problems, security, and other misunderstandings that should have been resolved in 90 but they are inherited even now. And not only they are transferred, but they continue to multiply with the development of technology - so, let's say, a limit on the size of boot disks of 2 TB has come out.

Currently, most motherboard manufacturers use the UEFI Class 2, which allows you to choose between UEFI and BIOS interfaces through the Compatibility Support Module (CSM). UEFI Class 3 is also used, but relatively rarely (it can be seen, for example, in the Microsoft Surface Book). In the near future, CSM support will be removed, which, in addition to solving the above problems, will cause some new ones.

After removing CSM on new platforms, it will be impossible to run 16-bit operating systems, software (at least in native mode) and drivers, as well as old equipment that does not have a UEFI-compatible BIOS. In addition, the mandatory use of Secure Boot will remove from the compatibility list all operating systems that cannot run through it. It seems that the scale of the problem in reality will not be too great - only desperate oldfags and lovers of the exotic will suffer. Well, most users who regularly upgrade their computers will not even notice this milestone.