Alan Kay, a pioneering computer scientist, has stated that the ENIAC did not have a BIOS or any direct equivalent, and he does not consider it a stored-program computer. He notes that while certain techniques allowed limited program storage, they were insufficient to meet the criteria for a true stored-program architecture.

Kay raises the possibility that a program for basic input/output operations might need to reside in firmware to qualify as a BIOS under a strict interpretation of the term. However, he aligns more closely with the spirit of the concept, which emphasizes functional capability over specific implementation methods.

He points out that many early computers, including those developed by Digital Equipment Corporation, were initialized using physical switches or toggle panels. Operators would manually enter initial instructions to load larger programs from media such as paper tape. The CDC 6600, introduced around 1964–1965, featured a dedicated control panel for this cold-start process, which Kay describes as a more practical alternative to toggle-based methods.

According to Kay, the first widely recognized use of the term BIOS occurred in 1975 with the CP/M operating system, though the modern understanding of BIOS as firmware-based initialization code emerged with the IBM PC in 1981. Both systems relied on read-only memory to store startup routines.

The discussion was originally posted on Quora and later shared on Hacker News, where it garnered over 21,000 views and multiple upvotes. It remains part of ongoing conversations about the evolution of computer firmware and early system design practices.