Introducing…Flash BIOS!

In a great segment from the 1992 season of The Computer Chronicles, Stuart is talking to Bob Kutnick of a company nobody remembers anymore called Amkly Systems.  No longer do you need chip pullers to update a computer BIOS.  Flash BIOS has arrived!

Hooray for Flash BIOS!

Amkly Systems was a short-lived startup from Irvine, CA that produced advanced peripherals (e.g. memory and processor upgrades) for high-end PCs.  It was founded by Albert Wong, who was a co-founder of AST Research.  (he’s the “A” in the AST!)  Sadly for Albert, his second venture didn’t pan out the way his first did.

I’m guessing this must have been one of the very first demonstrations of flash BIOS, since Intel had published a whitepaper announcing flash only the year before (1991):

I’m fairly confident this episode aired within nine months of this whitepaper.