The BIOS Chip
The motherboard BIOS is stored in a chip on the motherboard. The BIOS chip normally comes in the form of a rectangular DIP (Dual In-line Package) or a square PLCC (Plastic Leaded Chip Carrier) package.
The capacity of BIOS chips is measured in Megabits (Mb). Most BIOS chips these days are 2Mb (256KB) in size. These higher capacity chips allow the manufacturer to offer more features than is possible with the smaller 1Mb chips.
However, please note that the size of the BIOS chip has nothing to do with its performance. The choice of type and size of the BIOS chip is a matter of economics and requirements, rather than performance.
Figure 1.2 PLCC-type BIOS chips. (Photo by author.)