BIOS

You’ll never have to update or even think about the ROM of your Macintosh (the approximate equivalent of the BIOS on the PC). It’s permanent and unchanging. The very similar firmware of your Macintosh does occasionally have to be updated in order to work with a new version of the Mac operating system or some dramatic new feature—once every four years, perhaps. You’ll be notified on the screen when the time comes.

Get Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Panther Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.