Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor

The CMOS, or Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor, is the chip in a computer that holds the most basic of settings for a computer. These settings include the date, time, and system setup parameters. The most common way to access the CMOS to change these parameters is hitting a specific key during the computer’s initial startup (CMOS, 2013). Since the inception there have been many changes made to the CMOS. The CMOS memory has been changed from analog to digital and the speed at which it is accessed has been increased (CMOS, 2013). The one thing that has basically stayed the same is the memory size of the CMOS.

Since it is only required to hold the basic boot setting for the system there has been no need to increase the size of the memory over time. However, the memory of the CMOS can be changed by the way the memory is set and has the ability to be added to or reduced (CMOS Memory Size Mismatch, 2013). CMOS memory has also began using EEPROM recently. However, most systems are still being made with a CMOS that uses RAM and a battery because the EEPROM is considered a more advanced feature and has not been fully accepted by the market.

REFERENCES

CMOS. (2013). PCMAG.COM: Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 9, 2014 from http://pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/39867/cmos. CMOS Memory Size Mismatch. (2013). Computer Hope. Retrieved November 9, 2014 from http://computerhope.com/issues/ch000385.htm.