Single BIOS technique for supporting processors with and without 64-bit extensions

摘要

A technique according to the invention enables a single BIOS to support processors with or without 64-bit extensions efficiently. The BIOS creates a data structure having entries that correspond to elements stored in a state save area. The state save area elements themselves may be located at different addresses depending on whether or not the host processor includes 64-bit extensions. But the corresponding entries in the data structure are located at the same offsets within the data structure in either case. During execution of an SMI handler routine, the BIOS accesses the data structure whenever it needs to access elements of the state save area.