BEAVERTON, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) Forum, a world-class, nonprofit industry standards body of leading technology companies that promotes firmware innovation by creating specifications to enable the continual evolution of platform technologies, today announced the expansion of UEFI technology into a variety of non-traditional industry sectors. The latest UEFI specifications are designed to support firmware for enhanced security and embedding in mobile devices, as well as applications outside of the PC arena.
By design, UEFI technology lends itself to utility and applicability across a range of platforms and enables cross-functionality between devices, software and systems. Expansion of UEFI technology into sectors outside of the PC space is facilitated by updated specifications, including new versions of UEFI Self-Certification Test (SCT) suites. SCT suites provide the computing industry with a test suite to verify the existence of protocols, as well as input and output parameters.
“The UEFI specification supports a boot loader that is able to launch a wide variety of operating systems,” said Andrew Sloss, senior principal engineer, ARM® and UEFI ARM Bindings Sub-Team leader. “This technology has clear advantages for equipment manufacturers, who need cost-effective, standardized solutions to create compelling new products that are compatible with the exponential growth of mobile and non-PC applications.”
ARM recommends UEFI as the preferred boot loader for 64-bit processors, based on the ARMv8 AArch64 architecture. The architecture optimizes applications from smartphones to servers by introducing a new set of features, including a larger register file, enhanced addressing range and cryptography instructions.
“UEFI Secure Boot isn’t just for Windows; as more people use mobile devices, the need to protect those devices increases,” said Mark Doran, president, UEFI Forum. “Along with that, we are seeing an increased reliance on firmware innovation across non-traditional market segments. The expansion of UEFI technologies addresses the growing demand for security across the mobile and non-PC application continuum.”
About UEFI Forum
Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) Forum is a world-class non-profit industry standards body that works in partnership to enable the evolution of platform technologies. The UEFI Forum champions firmware innovation through industry collaboration and the advocacy of a standardized interface that simplifies and secures platform initialization and firmware boot strap operations. Both developed and supported by representatives from industry-leading technology companies, UEFI specifications promote business and technological efficiency, improve performance and security, facilitate interoperability between devices, platforms and systems, and comply with next-generation technologies. To learn more about the UEFI Forum, visit UEFI.org.
