I recently started a thread over in the Intel Product Forum, concerning the by now infamous serial number embedded in the Pentium III processor. I'm persuaded that this implementation of the PSN, as it's called, is faulty and leaves users open to invasions of their privacy beyond a reasonable degree. The issue needs to be addressed and corrected by Intel, either by manufacturing P-III's without the serial number, or by coming up with a reasonably airtight means of ensuring that the PSN cannot be read by unauthorized parties.

Meanwhile, though, plenty of Pentium III owners are going to want to know what they can do to guard against unwanted programs or viruses on the Net reading their processor serial numbers, and the thread was an attempt to talk through a user's possible options. I had believed that the ability to turn off the PSN in the system's BIOS would be a sufficient safeguard in most cases, but was subsequently informed that even in that case, the computer's CMOS memory could be read and possibly written to, overriding the BIOS disabling of the serial number in a way that is transparent to the user.

I've made some attempts to research the way in which software applications could write to CMOS memory and in that way sabotage a user's security settings, but I haven't been able to find any resources that discuss the issue. Suddenly, though, it occurred to me that our very own resident programming whiz Mr. Stoddard might be able to supply some intelligent and pertinent comments.

Can you enlighten me at all on this issue, Sam, or anyone else around here for that matter? Is it possible for software programs in a Windows environment to write to CMOS memory and in that way change BIOS settings, and if so, is it possible to write-protect a computer's CMOS? And if you don't happen to know, well, it was worth a try, anyway. :-)

Iss "supplier of comments, both pertinent and impertinent" achar