Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) and Unified EFI (UEFI)

Defining the interface between the operating system and platform firmware Background

                                                                                         

The Unified EFI (UEFI) Specification (previously known as the EFI Specification) defines an interface between an operating system and platform firmware.

The interface consists of data tables that contain platform-related information, boot service calls, and runtime service calls that are available to the operating system and its loader. These provide a standard environment for booting an operating system and running pre-boot applications.

The UEFI Specification was primarily intended for the next generation of IA architecture–based computers, and is an outgrowth of the "Intel® Boot Initiative" (IBI) program that began in 1998.

Intel's original version of this specification was publicly named EFI, ending with the EFI 1.10 version.

In 2005, The Unified EFI Forum was formed as an industry-wide organization to promote adoption and continue the development of the EFI Specification. Using the EFI 1.10 Specification as the starting point, this industry group released the follow on specifications, renamed Unified EFI.

The current version of the UEFI Specification can be found at the UEFI web site.

Specifications

UEFI Specifications
The latest version of the UEFI Specification is available from the UEFI web site.

Intel® Platform Innovation Framework for UEFI and EFI Specifications
Learn more and download specification documents.

Tools and utilities

Intel® C Compiler for EFI Byte Code

Application Toolkit Project

EFI Development Kit

EFI Development Kit II

Intel® UEFI Development Kit Debugger Tool

UEFI Disk Utilities*

UEFI tools, resources, drivers and training

Microsoft EFI

Microsoft-related UEFI/EFI link

UEFI support and requirements

Helpful resources

Independent Hardware Vendor UEFI Enabling Center
Find the latest tools resources and training to get started developing drivers and applications.

UEFI and framework history
For information on the history of UEFI and the framework, please contact us.

UEFI industry group
The Unified EFI Forum

Latest UEFI and foundation code for EFI implementations
TianoCore.org

Firmware providers

American Megatrends Inc.*

Insyde Software Corp.*

Nanjing ByoSoft Co., Ltd*

Phoenix Technologies, LTD.*

Third-party EFI hardware debuggers

American Arium* American Megatrends Inc.

Linux* ELILO* sources

Source for new ELILO requires gcc3.x and binutils 2.11.90 or higher binaries already compiled Linux* kernel with EFI support for IA32 is available at http://www.kernel.org in any of the kernels starting from 2.6.1 or higher.

EGRUB—Available upon request. Send e-mail to EFI General Feedback.

Novell*—UEFI SLES/SLED 11 partitioning recommendations for installing X64

Fedora*—EFI Fedora 9 wiki

White papers and technical articles

Security white paper

Technical article: A brief introduction to the conception of the UEFI shell

Technical article: The UEFI shell in detail

Technical article: Using the UEFI shell for bare metal provisioning

Training

Please contact your UEFI Firmware provider for local training in your geography. If you need to set up your own training, contact us for material.

Download presentations from recent Intel Developer Forums

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