Unified EFI Update

Tony PiercePresidentUnited EFI Forumtonypi @ microsoft.com

Session OutlineSession Outline

Unified EFI ForumWho we are

What we do

How to get involved

AMD on the future of firmwareAMD’s view

AMD’s requirements

AMD’s plans

Session GoalsSession Goals

Attendees should leave this session with the following:

An understanding of the Unified EFI Forum

Knowledge about the current specification work of the Forum

How and where to engage with the UEFI Forum

An insight into AMD’s view of future firmware

The Unified EFI ForumThe Unified EFI Forum

PurposeDevelopment of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) Specification

Worldwide adoption and promotion of UEFI specifications

Enable members and other implementers to bring the technology into a variety of computing platforms and operating systems

UEFI Test Suite

The UEFI SpecificationThe UEFI Specification

Interface specification between Operating System and Platform Firmware

Provides architecture independent mechanism for add-in card initialization

Provides a standard environment for booting an operating system and running pre-boot applications

Interfaces replace all current legacy BIOS boot interfaces

Relationship Between UEFI and EFIRelationship Between UEFI and EFI

UEFI SpecificationEFI 1.10 specification contributed to the Forum by Intel and Microsoft to be used as a starting draft

Forum will evolve, extend, and add any new functionality required to produce UEFI 1.0 specification

All licensing for UEFI 1.0 specification will come from UEFI Forum

EFI 1.10 SpecificationIntel holds copyright

Licensed directly from Intel

No future EFI specifications

Organizational StructureOrganizational Structure

Membership ClassificationsPromoters

Advanced Micro Devices, American Megatrends, Inc., Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company, Intel Corporation, International Business Machines Corporation, Insyde Software Corporation Microsoft Corporation, and Phoenix Technologies

ContributorsYour name belongs here

Contributor PrivilegesReview and Contribute to all Draft Specifications

Opportunity to participate in Work Groups

AdopterLicense agreement with the Forum

How do I Become a Member of UEFIHow do I Become a Member of UEFI

All agreements and process will be posted on www.UEFI.org

Site is currently UNDER CONSTUCTION

Expected to be live by end of April

For current questions email admin @ uefi.org

Call To ActionCall To Action

Evaluate UEFI for your Windowscodenamed “Longhorn” product plans

Participate in the development of UEFI specifications and test

Adopt UEFI as your long term firmware to operating system interface

AMD and the Future of Firmware

Richard A. BrunnerAMD FellowAdvanced Micro Devices, Inc.

Brian RichardsonTechnical EvangelistAmerica Megatrends, Inc.

AMD’s View on the Future of FirmwareAMD’s View on the Future of Firmware

The industry is reaching a key transition point in the next few years.

Legacy “16-bit” BIOS is reaching the end of its flexibility in dealing with new technologies

In the next 5 years it will go from maturity to senility

Significant BIOS work for each new piece of silicon

Interface is per-BIOS “spaghetti” code, not modular

Cryptic assembly, difficult to patch after-the-fact, fragile

AMD’s View on the Future of Firmware (con’t)AMD’s View on the Future of Firmware (con’t)

The flexibility of new firmware models will begin to become a requirement for AMD’s customers

Server OEMS and customers want a modular interface that allows them to innovate w/o re-engineering the entire BIOS.

AMD and our Silicon partners can benefit from a new model’s modular, well-defined interface and modern runtime environment

Can write and release modules to end users directly

Well defined interface of a new model makes write-once or (write-less-often) and patching workable for multiple BIOSes

Many benefits to modern, testable runtime environment

AMD Future Firmware RequirementsAMD Future Firmware Requirements

Allows customers an evolutionary transition (nota revolutionary upset) that:

Continues to support Legacy OSs and devices that require 16-bit Legacy BIOS services

Legacy “16-bit” BIOS will still matter for years!

Allows OEMs to introduce the new Firmware model into Market Segments as customer demand dictates

Operating-System-to-Firmware interface that:Comprehends new hardware technologies, exotic boot devices, and immense storage devices

Provides a more standardized, modular, non-thunking interface to advanced OSs like Windows Longhorn.

Is verified by standardized test suites

AMD Future Firmware Requirements (con’t)AMD Future Firmware Requirements (con’t)

Chipset-to-Firmware (silicon) interface that:Is modular, processor and chipset vendor-neutral

Is well-defined module environment and interface

Is verified by standardized test suites

New interface for modern components & buses only Legacy components, like VGA, will always need “wrappers”

Modern firmware environment that:Allows direct addressability of all memory without hacks (uses 32-bit and/or 64-bit pointers)

Allows firmware to use higher-level procedure calls, stacks, etc.

Allows Firmware driver development and testing on top of a Modern OS, not underneath it

Enter Unified Extended Firmware InterfaceEnter Unified Extended Firmware Interface

AMD is happy to be a founding member of the Unified EFI Forum (UEFI)

UEFI should meet many of AMD’s future Firmware requirements

UEFI looks on its way to re-vamping the ancient, fragile OS-to-Firmware Interface

UEFI has right mix of OEMs, CPU vendors, and OS vendors to be effective

UEFI doesn’t yet solve modularity requirements for the Chipset-to-Firmware Interface

AMD and other Industry players are discussing how to drive a standard in this area. More to come…

Strength in NumbersStrength in Numbers

UEFI is a Firmware Interface Specification,not a Firmware Implementation

Intel’s Platform Framework is one of several UEFI implementations

Each vendor will innovate in the underlying firmware implementations and make design trade-offs that best fit their customers and markets

The success of UEFI as a true standard will come from its ability to support multiple independent implementations

The UEFI forum, specifications, and test suites are crucial to making this work

Multiple implementations, if coordinated and embraced wisely by the forum, can strengthen the UEFI standard

Strength in Numbers (con’t)Strength in Numbers (con’t)

AMD is working with BIOS vendors on independent UEFI Implementations

These Implementations support the UEFI stack on AMD Athlon 64™ and AMD Opteron™ processors

These Implementations pass all available UEFIOS-to-Firmware Test Suites.

These Implementations will boot Windows Longhorn

Come by the AMD booth to see Demos of these implementations

American Megatrends, Inc. (AMI) DemoAmerican Megatrends, Inc. (AMI) Demo

AMI has been working with AMD on an independent UEFI Implementation for AMD Processors.

This implementation is independent, “clean-room” Framework and Foundation Code

This effort demonstrates that UEFI can be a true, vendor-neutral standard

Demo:We will show the AMI UEFI Firmware booting Microsoft Windows® for x64 Systems on a 2-Processor/4-core AMD Opteron™ processor-based system.

Call To ActionCall To Action

Talk to us about your firmware plans and requirements

Stay engaged and watch www.AMD.com for updated information

Engage with the UEFI Forum and help evolve the industry

Community ResourcesCommunity Resources

Windows Hardware & Driver Central (WHDC)www.microsoft.com/whdc/default.mspx

Technical Communitieswww.microsoft.com/communities/products/default.mspx

Non-Microsoft Community Siteswww.microsoft.com/communities/related/default.mspx

Microsoft Public Newsgroupswww.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups

Technical Chats and Webcastswww.microsoft.com/communities/chats/default.mspx

www.microsoft.com/webcasts

Microsoft Blogswww.microsoft.com/communities/blogs

Additional ResourcesAdditional Resources

admin @ uefi.org

Web Resources:

Specs: http://www.uefi.org