Unit 7 Research Paper 1: UEFI BIOS 1. UEFI BIOS - is a specification that defines a software interface between the operating system(s) and the platform's firmware. In the mid 90s Intel was creating a new processor architecture that was 64-bit, but wasn't backwards-compatible with the old x86. This architecture was the Itanium 64. Because the IA-64 only supports 64-bit instructions, the PC BIOS couldn't be used, therefore Intel developed the EFI specification. Later on this specification was managed (and still is) by the UEFI board, an association of several companies such as AMD, Microsoft, Intel, Apple and so on.
History - UEFI is actually an extension of the original Extensible Firmware Interface developed by Intel. They developed this new hardware and software interface system when they launched the ill-fated Itanium or IA64 server processor lineup. Because of its advanced architecture and the limitations of the existing BIOS systems, they wanted to develop a new method for handing off the hardware to the operating system that would allow for greater flexibility. Because the Itanium wasn't a huge success, the EFI standards also languished for many years.
In 2005, the Unified EFI Forum was established between a number of major corporations that would expand upon the original specifications developed by Intel to produce a new standard for updating the hardware and software interface. This includes companies such as AMD, Apple, Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, Lenovo and Microsoft. Even two of the largest BIOS makers, American Megatrends Inc. and Phoenix Technologies are members. The current UEFI specification, version 2.4, was approved in July 2013. 2. UEFI does not use or require a battery on the motherboard. It sits in the /EFI/ directory in some non-volatile memory; either in NAND on the motherboard, on your hard drive, or on a network share. It also utilizes flash memory, also known as EEPROM.
Example of BIOS
