No, flash memory is non voatile, it does not lose it's contents if not
powered. The battery is mainly there for two reasons:

1. to keep to contents of the CMOS OK, this is mostly a legacy thing, there
isn't really a good reason that this memory couldn't be made non volatile,
however...

2. to keep the clock running

Since the clock running requires a battery I guess manufacterers feel it's
not necessary to switch the CMOS to non volatile memory. TTYL

> Does flash memory have to be "recharged" continuosly like RAM? Is that the
> purpose of the battery on my motherboard? If the battery becomes weak does
> the entire BIOS fail?
>
> Personally I have a new gigabyte motherboard and I recently
> flashed my BIOS
> and I did not have any problems.

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