ARM Joins Unified Extensible Firmware Interface Forum

Industry organization aims to modernize the boot process

April 30, 2008

What: ARM has joined the UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) Forum. The UEFI Forum is a non-profit collaborative trade organization formed as an industry-wide effort to modernize the boot process. The purpose of the Forum is to develop, manage and promote the UEFI specification, which, as an evolving specification, is driven by contributions and support from member companies.

The UEFI specification details an interface that helps hand off control of the system from the pre-boot environment (i.e., after the system is powered on, but before the operating system starts) to an operating system. UEFI will provide a clean interface between operating systems and platform firmware at boot time, and will support an architecture-independent mechanism for initializing add-in cards.

ARM has joined UEFI in order to support OEMs that are developing ARM® processor-based solutions using UEFI, standardize the boot procedure for ARM processor-based platforms, improve the hardware-software interface for Operating Systems that target the ARM architecture  and to provide guidance to the UEFI ARM initiative.

For more information about the UEFI Forum or the UEFI specification, please visit http://www.uefi.org/home

Who: ARM designs the technology that lies at the heart of advanced digital products, from wireless, networking and consumer entertainment solutions to imaging, automotive, security and storage devices. ARM’s comprehensive product offering includes 32-bit RISC microprocessors, graphics processors, enabling software, cell libraries, embedded memories, high-speed connectivity products, peripherals and development tools. Combined with comprehensive design services, training, support and maintenance, and the company’s broad Partner community, they provide a total system solution that offers a fast, reliable path to market for leading electronics companies. More information on ARM is available at http://www.arm.com.