A error message by the popular VoIP software, Skype, had led an asembly expert with pseudonym Myria to discover that Skype had attempted to to execute a .com file which reads from the BIOS, as reported at her blog.

32-bit OS which supports NT Virtual DOS Machine (NTVDM), allows programs to have a read-only access to BIOS address area. However, 64-bit OS does not support NTVDM, thus an error is thrown when an applications attempts to read from the BIOS.

The interesting part is why is Skype reading from the BIOS.