Apple's Transition from Open Firmware to Extensible Firmware Interface

摘要

In January 2006, Apple introduced Intel Architecture based Macs. They took this hardware move as an opportunity to also upgrade their choice of firmware. Their previous firmware, Open Firmware, was not in itself a bad choice, being far more advanced than the IBM PC BIOS that Windows computers use. There is, however, a better firmware choice that offers improvements on Open Firmware, called Extensible Firmware Interface, EFI, developed by Intel. When Apple looked for a successor to their PowerPC Processors, they found a complete hardware package from Intel. They got the latest CoreDuo and Xeon Processors, as well as advancements in boot firmware and disk partitioning. Since Apple offers an integrated package, this enables them to control all aspects of the computer system from processors to boot firmware to operating system. This also enabled them to make a smooth transition from the PowerPC, Open Firmware, APM and their 32bit OS, to Intel processors, EFI, GPT and 64bit Tiger OS X. Anyone using these 2 systems will not notice any difference apart from their performance. In this article we will take a brief look at Open Firmware and then explain what EFI is, its history, and what this means for Apple's future as well as that of the PC market in general.