Intel Corp., world's largest chip producer, announced on Tuesday that it plans to release the foundation code of its Tiano next-generation BIOS code as part of open-source license.

Tiana, also known as Extensible Firmware Interface, features a pre-boot enviornment that is OS-agnostic, which means companies such as American Megatrends Insyde Software Corp. will be able to design their own quasi-applications.

Intel is currently facing a problem from Phoenix Technologies, one of the largest BIOS providers to motherboard manufacturers. Phoenix Technologies has taken the BIOS and is now producing trusted BIOSes and pre-boot access to multimedia applications that are already being shipped.

Intel will release the code in conjunction with CollabNet. Programmers in the open-source community will be able to change the code in the BIOS and even alter the integrated proprietary technologies. The chip giant will release core foundation code from its next-generation firmware technology along with a firmware driver development kit for interested developers.

"Because pre-boot firmware is a vital ingredient in all modern platforms, silicon vendors and system manufacturers require stability in the Foundation code to protect their investment in innovation," said Will Swope, vice president and general manager of the Software and Solutions Group at Intel, in a statement. "They expect unfettered access and collaborative control of changes so that interoperability can be maintained."

Microsoft will support the next-generation BIOS, Tiano, in its Longhorn OS.

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