Most new motherboards include basic antivirus capabilities in the form of Hard Disk Partition and Boot sector defence, but why not... build in full Anti-Virus support. You could store the definitions in a Flash ROM, and have an option to update them automatically over the net.

This would be simple to implement - so why not do it?

The Motherbaord manufacturer could do a deal with Norton or whoever. (I got Norton Antivirus free with my motherboard, so why not build it in?)
-- CasaLoco, Jun 04 2001

Because it's not simple to implement. The motherboard and BIOS only see the basic machine hardware; they don't know anything about operating systems and filesystems and networks and COM objects and e-mail and address book entries and executable files and all that.

At best, the motherboard's flash ROM would just include the software on the equivalent of a CD-ROM which would be somehow mounted by the OS, but that would require special drivers and whatnot.

You'd be better off just including a CD in the box.
-- egnor, Jun 04 2001


Norton Antivirus run on Multiple OS's, as do most of them. File types to scan could be included in the flash update. New OS's could included drivers to support additional features. (I suppose you could just build the virus protection into the OS..)
-- CasaLoco, Jun 04 2001


So you're going to put either enough flash memory or enough rewritable BIOS in to hold an antivirus program for every operating system that might be run on the motherboard? While the names of the programs might be the same, Windows Norton AV is not the same as BeOS Norton AV, is not the same as Linux AV, etc.
-- StarChaser, Jun 04 2001


It could be detected as a plug and play device (drivers for it shipped with all versions of Windows).
-- emdee2k, Aug 08 2001


Not everybody uses Windows, and that still doesn't answer the question, 'are you going to put in enough flash memory to hold an entire set of programs'...
-- StarChaser, Aug 11 2001


Has nobody ever seen "Trend ChipAwayVirus", a "feature" on some motherboards from a few years ago?

This idea was baked and burned. ChipAwayVirus never caught a virus, but did pop up and screw with the computer at arbitrary times when a DOS program was running.

And since today's OSes are much more removed from the hardware level than DOS, this would not work anymore.
-- PurpleBob, Oct 20 2001


Why not have the antivirus software work at a hardware disk access level... it still need to simply look for a virus "Pattern" and there arn't that many disk format for the PC. um Fat and NTFS are the 2 main ones...
-- CasaLoco, Jan 14 2002


FAT(16), FAT32, NTFS, HPFS, CDFS just to name a few. Some AV programs do watch what's being written (and read) to (from) the hard drive.
-- phoenix, Jan 14 2002


Those are some Microsoft formats. You're forgetting the rest of the world. There are at least 50 others. Most prominent of these would probably be the linux native/linux swap, Sun's format(s) & other unixes; BeOS has a couple too. Basically, every OS has it's own format.

The problem is that the exact format is determined by the OS being run, regardless of the type recorded in the partition table. You're talking about implementing AV using OS-specific formats, which are subject to change, at the hardware level...

Also, everything would have to be hardcoded and unupdatable or the first virus that gets by will flash all the definitions into garbage that'll crash the computer when it's run!
-- Wulf, May 11 2002


Yeah right, in the same way as all viruses have the ability to flash the bios and wipe the data.

Moron.

Also, the virus engine would be pretty much universal, it's only the virus definitions that would need to be updated.
-- CasaLoco, Oct 29 2002


They are working on hardcoding the O/S's to a similar Idea bieng that RAM/ROM is faster access then HDD so your system would boot faster. But if it were so simple to update your flash then their would be custom made viruses to do just that. Also, that moron comment was kinda funny considering there are viruses that can destroy most common bioses obiously only after a reboot will you see it occur. I agree that there are many diffrent Partitioning programs, and their Tables/maps of the hardrive spacing are totally diffrent for many O/S's. This could be a possible option if Hardcoded(Embedded) O/S's become the future then you could easily have Embedded AV software/Firewalls/Word Processing Suits on and on. But for now it is much more cost effective to send a 1-4 cent CD then to include a $50 increase (for bigger Flash memory, flashing programs, secure updating via Norton, Macaffee, etc.) Plus the problem with installing new programs would have to be resolved as most install programs ask that you disable your A/V software before you install it. Hope this can help ya understand the reasoning.
-- indomidable, Nov 26 2002


yes I know there are *BOOT* viruses that can flash your BIOS but if your dumb enough to leave an un-virus checked disk in the drive there no helping you.
-- CasaLoco, Mar 26 2004



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