Abbreviation | UEFI |
---|---|
Status | Published |
Year started | 2006[a] |
Latest version | 2.10 August 29, 2022 |
Organization | UEFI Forum |
Related standards | ACPI, UEFI Platform Initialization |
Predecessor | IBM PC compatible BIOS |
Domain | Firmware |
Website | uefi |
Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI, /ˈjuːɪfaɪ/ or as an acronym)[b] is a specification that defines the architecture of the platform firmware used for booting the computer hardware and its interface for interaction with the operating system. Examples of firmware that implement the specification are AMI Aptio, Phoenix SecureCore, TianoCore EDK II, InsydeH2O. UEFI replaces the BIOS which was present in the boot ROM of all personal computers that are IBM PC compatible,[1][2] although it can provide backwards compatibility with the BIOS using CSM booting. Intel developed the original Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) specification. Some of the EFI's practices and data formats mirror those of Microsoft Windows.[3][4] In 2005, UEFI deprecated EFI 1.10 (the final release of EFI).
UEFI is independent of platform and programming language, but C is used for the reference implementation TianoCore EDKII.
Contrary to its predecessor BIOS which is a de facto standard originally created by IBM as proprietary software, UEFI is an open standard maintained by an industry consortium.
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