Intel Extensible Firmware Interface - Manual (Page 1053)

Glossary
Version 1.10 12/01/02 Glossary-5
EFI Application Modular code that may be loaded in the boot services environment to accomplish
platform specific tasks within that environment. Examples of possible
applications might include diagnostics or disaster recovery tools shipped with a
platform that run outside the OS environment. Applications may be loaded in
accordance with policy implemented by the platform firmware to accomplish a
specific task. Control is then returned from the application to the platform
firmware.
EFI Byte Code (EBC)
The binary encoding of instructions as output by the EBC C compiler and linker.
The
EBC image is executed by the interpreter.
EFI Driver A module of code typically inserted into the firmware via protocol interfaces.
Drivers may provide device support during the boot process or they may provide
platform services. It is important not to confuse drivers in this specification with
OS drivers that load to provide device support once the OS takes control of the
platform.
EFI File A container consisting of a number of blocks that holds an image or a data file
within a file system that complies with this specification.
EFI Hard Disk A hard disk that supports the new EFI partitioning scheme ( GUID Partitions ).
EFI OS Loader The first piece of operating system code loaded by the firmware to initiate the OS
boot process. This code is loaded at a fixed address and then executed. The OS
takes control of the system prior to completing the OS boot process by calling the
interface that terminates all boot services.
EFI-compliant Refers to a platform that complies with this specification.
EFI-conformant See EFI-compliant .
End of Hardware Device Path
A Device Path which, depending on the subtype, is used to indicate the end of the
Device Path instance or Device Path structure.
Enhanced Mode (EM)
The 64-bit architecture extension that makes up part of the Intel ® Itanium ®
architecture.
Event Services The set of functions used to manage events. Includes CheckEvent() ,
CreateEvent() , CloseEvent() , SignalEvent() , and
WaitForEvent() .
Event An EFI data structure that describes an “event”—for example, the expiration
of a timer.
FAT File System The file system on which the EFI file system is based. See File Allocation
Table and System Partition .