HP to buy BIOS specialist Phoenix

BIOS specialist Phoenix will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hewlett Packard after a $12 million (£8.16 million) deal in which HP will get assets related to HyperSpace, HyperCore and Phoenix Flip.

In what is a major boost for people who want to check their e-mails or listen to music when they are out and about, users will be offered significantly faster boot times than on Windows when they use HyperSpace - as a lightweight, Linux-based operating system designed for installation as a second operating system on portable devices such as netbooks and notebooks.

HyperSpace is a useful selling point for the portable products division, even though it is not presently the most popular quick-boot Linux platform.

The Linux platform will be able to keep certain core services running even while the user is booted into Windows, with the Phoenix HyperCore platform which HP will be able to use under the deal.

BIOS stands for basic input/output system which is built into a PC and has the primary function to load and start an operating system.

Copyright © Press Association 2010