1. Company
Theclientdesigns,manufacturersandmarketsfaulttolerantservers,mobile,tablets&
Desktop.BIOSisthenecessaryevilofembeddedsystems.BIOSdevelopersknowtoowell
thatwhilemosteveryoneneedsaBIOS,fewhasthepatience,expertise,orbudgetto
developtheone.Inthetraditionalfirmwaremodel,theBIOSdiscoversandinitializesthe
hardware.
TheOSreliesontheBIOStodiscoverthehardwareandistypicallytightlyTheOSreliesontheBIOStodiscoverthehardwareandistypicallytightly
coupledtoBIOStoprovidethecontrolmethodsforAdvancedConfigurationandpower
interface(ACPI).Thisisturnenablestheprocesstosupportthermalmonitoringand
performancecontrol.
Challenges:ThreespecificBIOS
challengescancreateperplexingproblems
thatleadtomisseddeadlines,poor
emeddeddesigns,budgetoverrunsandemeddeddesigns,budgetoverrunsand
generalemoionaldistress.These
developmentchallengesareinthearea
of:
*Thermalmanagement
*Firmwareapplicationdevelopment
*Boarddebugging
ThechallengesThechallenges:
Thermalmanagement:Asaprocessortechnologyadvances.Thermalmanagementfor
embeddedsystembecomesessentialtoensurethetemperaturearemaintainedwithin
specificrange.Whenprocessorpowersuppliesexceedstheirtolerancerange,permanent
damagetoprocessororothercomponentsmayoccur.
Firmwareapplicationdevelopment:BeforetheframeworkforEFIbecameavailable,
mostBIOScodingwasdoneaproprietaryenvironmentparticulartoaBIOSvendor
usingassemblylanguage.Anagreed–uponsetupofAPIs,well–definedfunctionsforusingassemblylanguage.Anagreed–uponsetupofAPIs,well–definedfunctionsfor
prebootandruntimeservices.
BoardDebugging:Aboarddebuggingutilityisapowerfultoolthatenablethe
firmwareengineerstoeasilyfindbugs,speeddevelopmenttimeand
boardbring-upandsimplifyapplicationtransferbetweenboardandprojectworkgroups.

2. TheSolutions:
Theframeworkwedevelopedinitializesthethermalenableregistersandprovides
methodsforAdvanceConfigurationandPowerInterface(ACPI).Thisisturnenables
theprocessortosupportthermalmonitoringandperformancecontrol.
TheUEFIspecificationdefinesastandardinterfacebetweentheOSandplatform
firmware.Datatableswithintheinterfacecontainsplatform-relatedinformationplus
bootandruntimeservicecallavailabletotheOSanditsloader.Together,thesefeaturesbootandruntimeservicecallavailabletotheOSanditsloader.Together,thesefeatures
providesastandardenvironmentforbootinganOSandrunningprebootapplications.
BIOSdebuggingoptionsintotwobroadcategories:firmwarestatusandhardwareand
firmwaredebugging.
Firmwarestatusdebuggingconsistsofoutput
codesonlyandarenotconsideredtrue
debugging.Thecodeincludes:
*EFIstatuscodesthroughtheserialconsole*EFIstatuscodesthroughtheserialconsole
port
*Postcodes(fromport80h)
*Beepcode(fromaudiodevice)
*Truehardwareandfirmwaredebugging
optionsconsistsof:
*Sourcecodeleveldebuggingtoolduring
thePEI,DXE,andOSbootphasesforEFIthePEI,DXE,andOSbootphasesforEFI
andnativedebugsupportforEFI
frameworkplatforms,Targetprobe
debugport.
BusinessBenefits
*Moreperformanceandincreasedconsolidationratios
*Businesscontinuityandincreaseduseruptimethroughvirtualmachinefailover,load
balancing,anddisasterrecoverycapabilitiesenabledbyseamlesslivemigrationbalancing,anddisasterrecoverycapabilitiesenabledbyseamlesslivemigration
*Afoundationfortrustandcompliancewithsecuritytechnologybuiltin,allowingyouto
verifythetrustworthinessofavirtualizedpoolofplatforms
*Investmentprotection:Combinesexistingprocessorgenerationsintothesame
virtualizedserverpool,extendingfailover,improvingloadbalancing,andprovidingthe
mostvaluefromexistingITinfrastructure
*Theenhancedsecuritythatasolidhardwarefoundationprovides