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Extensible Firmware Interface Specification
Glossary-2 12/01/02 Version 1.10
BIOS Parameter Block (BPB)
The first block (sector) of a partition. It defines the type and location of the FAT
File System on a drive.
BIOS Basic Input/Output System. A collection of low-level I/O service routines.
Block I/O Protocol A protocol that is used during boot services to abstract mass storage devices. It
allows boot services code to perform block I/O without knowing the type of a
device or its controller.
Block Size The fundamental allocation unit for devices that support the Block I/O Protocol
.
Not less than 512 bytes. This is commonly referred to as sector size on hard disk
drives.
Boot Device The device handle
that corresponds to the device from which the currently
executing image was loaded.
Boot Manager The part of the firmware implementation that is responsible for implementing
system boot policy. Although a particular boot manager implementation is not
specified in this document, such code is generally expected to be able to
enumerate and handle transfers of control to the available OS loaders as well as
EFI applications and drivers on a given system. The boot manager would
typically be responsible for interacting with the system user, where applicable, to
determine what to load during system startup. In cases where user interaction is
not indicated, the boot manager would determine what to load and, if multiple
items are to be loaded, what the sequencing of such loads would be.
Boot Services Driver
A program that is loaded into boot services memory and stays resident until boot
services terminates.
Boot Services Table
A table that contains the firmware entry points for accessing boot services
functions such as Task Priority Services
and Memory Allocation Services.
The table is accessed through a pointer in the System Table.
Boot Services Time
The period of time between platform initialization and the call to
ExitBootServices()
. During this time, EFI drivers and applications are
loaded iteratively and the system boots from an ordered list of EFI OS loaders.
Boot Services The collection of interfaces and protocols that are present in the boot
environment. The services minimally provide an OS loader with access to
platform capabilities required to complete OS boot. Services are also available to
drivers and applications that need access to platform capability. Boot services
are terminated once the operating system takes control of the platform.
BPB See BIOS Parameter Block
.