Dell PowerEdge T710 - What UEFI Has to Offer; How Is Dells UEFI Implemented

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WhatUEFIhastoOffer
TheprimarygoalofUEFIistodefineanarchitecturethatcanscalewithtimeandtoofferstructuredcoding
environmentallowingeasyenablementofnewtechnology.ThemaincharacteristicsofUEFIare:
AbstractionfortheOperation System.TheUEFIspecificationprovidesaninterfacebetweentheplatform
firmwareandthe
operatingsystem.Theinterfaces/API/protocolsmarkaclearboundarybetweenthe
firmwareandtheoperatingsystemandtheoperatingsystemloader.
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Abstractionfordevicesandrelatedcode.UEFIabstractsinterfacesthatmakeitpossibletobuildcode
whichworksonarangeofunderlyinghardwaredeviceswithouthavingexplicitknowledge
ofthespecifics
foreachdevice.Thespecificationdefinesinterfacestoplatformcapabilitiessuchasstandardbustypes
(PCI,USB,andSCSI).Thelistofsupportedbustypesmaygrowovertime.Thesedefinedinterfacesandthe
abilitytoextendtofuturebustypesarecomponentsoftheUEFIDriver
Model.
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Scalableplatformenvironment.Thespecificationdefinesacompletesolutionforthefirmwareto
describeallplatformfeaturesandcapabilitiestotheoperatingsystemduringthebootprocess.These
definitionscoverarangeofthecontemporaryplatformdesignsbutaresimpleenoughtobeableto
extendinthe
future.
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OperatingSystemAgnosticRichPre‐Bootenvironment.TheUEFIspecificationdefinesextensible
interfacesthatenablecreationofplatformdrivers.Thedrivers,analogoustooperatingsystemdrivers,
providesupportfornewdevicesandmayprovideenhancedplatformcapabilities,suchasfirmware
update,platformconfiguration,diagnosticsanddeployment services.The
existenceofnetworking,USB,
andfilesystemcapabilitiesaddstotherichnessofthepre‐bootenvironment.
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GUIDPartitionTable.TheUEFIdefinesanewstandardlayoutforthepartitiontable,knownasGUID
PartitionTable(GPT).GPTprovidesamoreflexiblemechanismforpartitioningdisksthanthe
Master
BootRecord(MBR)partitioningschemethathasbeencommontocomputers.MBRdiskssupportonly
fourpartitiontableentriesandthepartitionsizeislimitedto2TB.GPTschemeallowsupto128primary
partitionsandcansupportlargerthan2‐terabytepartitions.Somenear‐termlimitationsto2terabyte
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supportexistduetodevicesupport,butoncedevicesfullysupportGPT/UEFI,thiswillnolongerbean
issue.Seethe“Limitations”section.
HowisDell’sUEFIimplemented?
TosupportbootingtobothUEFIandnon‐UEFIawareoperatingsystems,theDellBIOSsupportsaBootMode
optionintheBIOSSetupUtility.TheBootModecanbesettoBIOSorUEFI.
SettingtheBootModetoUEFIallowsbootingtoaUEFI‐awareoperatingsystemandprovides
theUEFIBoot
Manager.ThisistheonlychangerequiredtoenableUEFIonthesystem.SettingtheBootModetoBIOSprovides
supportforallcurrentandlegacyoperationsystems.
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