US 8,527,744 B2 · Board module for providing alternative board functions which are not called by UEFI compatible programs for driving platform service in silicon components

Abstract

Methods, systems and program products provide platform customization in building of Unified Extensible Firmware Interface based Personal Computer firmware, typically but not essentially as BIOS. Provision is made for a conceptual matrix of Board module, Silicon (or chipset) modules together with core and foundation modules; this supersedes prior approaches that are often based on hierarchical (or inverse hierarchy) structured source codes. A Platform module resides architecturally between Silicon and Board modules. By largely removing the Platform module found in previously developed solutions and introducing a Board module OEM, customizations are separated from actual platform code (and also from core functions). This allows the customization footprint to be much smaller thus easing the programming efforts of porting products to reflect hardware development.

Claims10

Dependent claims

A non-transitory recording medium containing a representation of a firmware formed by a build process having inputs comprising:

a plurality of UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) compatible programs for driving silicon components;
a plurality of UEFI compatible programs for providing platform services to a plurality of programs selected from the programs for driving silicon components;
at least one program for providing a board library function to a plurality of programs selected from the UEFI compatible programs for providing platform services;
and
a board module for providing alternate board functions that supersede services comprised within the board library function,
wherein the alternate board functions are provided to said plurality of programs selected from the UEFI compatible programs for providing platform services, and wherein the services comprised within the board library function that are superseded by the alternate board functions are not called by said plurality of programs selected from the UEFI compatible programs for providing platform services.

3 more elements

A method for building a firmware component to execute a sequence of instructions in a device comprising a computer, the method comprising:

linking a plurality of UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) compatible programs for driving silicon components into the firmware component;
linking a plurality of UEFI compatible programs for providing platform services to a plurality of programs selected from the programs for driving silicon components into the firmware component;
linking at least one program for providing a board library function to a plurality of programs selected from the UEFI compatible programs for providing platform services into the firmware components and
linking a board module for providing alternate board functions that supersede services comprised within the board library function into the firmware component,
wherein the alternate board functions are provided to said plurality of programs selected from the UEFI compatible programs for providing platform services, and wherein the services comprised within the board library function that are superseded by the alternate board functions are not called by said plurality of programs selected from the UEFI compatible programs for providing platform services.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Board module for providing alternative board functions which are not called by UEFI compatible programs for driving platform service in silicon components

Life of this patent

Board module for providing alternative board functions which are not called by UEFI compatible programs for driving platform service in silicon components

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims10