More Power to Firmware

More Power to Firmware ... New Beginning 64-bit PCs do not use legacy BIOS. The IA-64 firmware is divided into three primary components: the Processor Abstraction Layer (PAL), the System Abstraction Layer (SAL), and the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI). PAL abstracts the processor hardware implementation from the point of view of SAL and the operating system. Different processor models with potential implementation differences appear uniformly via PAL. Examples of the PAL layer's functionality include: Interruption entry points such as those invoked by hardware events (processor reset, processor initialization, machine checks, etc.) Procedures that can be invoked by the operating system or higher level firmware, such as procedures for obtaining processor identification, configuration, capability information, cache initialization, enabling and disabling processor features. PAL has no knowledge of platform implementation details. Note however that PAL is part of the IA-64 architecture. The firmware implementation of PAL is supplied by the processor vendor, and it resides in OEM flash memory. SAL provides an abstraction for the platform implementation, without any knowledge of processor implementation details. SAL is not part of the IA-64 architecture -- it is part of the Developer's Interface Guide for 64-bit Intel Architecture (DIG64). The firmware implementation of PAL is provided by the OEM. ...