[vox-tech] The incredible moving ethernet adapter

[Jeffrey Nonken]

On Apr 23, 2007, at 11:45 AM, Bob Scofield wrote:


> 1)  The thought the MAC address was set by the card itself.

Well, kinda sorta. "The card" in this case is some chips built onto  
the motherboard. The MAC address is burned into flash or EEPROM or  
something somewhere on the card, normally, and read into RAM or  
stuffed into registers at powerup. But since the interface is  
integrated onto the motherboard there's no reason it can't be part of  
the BIOS.

>
> 2)  I thought BIOS flashing was dangerous enough that one should do  
> it only
> when necessary.

Well, kinda sorta. Flashing the ROM on a machine via firmware running  
on that machine (which is what the average user has to do) is sort of  
like trying to do brain surgery on yourself. However, the factory  
usually has an external device that does the job with the system  
powered down and does not depend on anything running on the machine.

More like somebody else doing brain surgery on you. The difference  
being that if the factory tech screws it up, he can just re-run the  
procedure. And, well, they can't REALLY shut you down for the brain  
surgery. Thus does my analogy fall apart if you examine it too  
closely. I'm going to walk away now, whistling and looking nonchalant.

>
> 3)  Why would IBM flash the BIOS on a hinge repair job?  Just to be  
> nice?

Maybe it's a standing order to, when they get their grubby paws on a  
system, a) upgrade that particular BIOS due to a bug or some such, or  
b) upgrade ANY system BIOS to the latest.

Or could be the tech was bored that day. :)