TRANSFORMING LEGACY UEFI FIRMWARE TO UNIVERSAL SCALABLE FIRMWARE

Smart overview of the Invention

The disclosed systems and methods focus on transforming legacy firmware into Universal Scalable Firmware (USF). This involves retrieving legacy firmware information and identifying complexities within it. A USF transformation protocol is then used to address these complexities and generate USF-compliant firmware. The transformed firmware is stored in nonvolatile storage within the information handling system. The process includes support for a simplified ACPI interface and a silicon-agnostic embedded abstraction module to ensure compatibility across various boot loaders.

Technical Field

The disclosure pertains to information handling systems, specifically focusing on firmware architectures. Information handling systems are used to process, store, and communicate information, varying widely in their configurations based on user needs. These systems often include firmware, which is specialized executable code stored in persistent storage devices, implementing low-level functions and hardware abstractions.

Background

Many information handling systems use firmware compliant with the Universal Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) standard, stored in firmware volumes (FVs) formatted according to a Firmware File System (FFS) specification. Legacy UEFI/BIOS firmware can be complex, with multiple interdependent components. The transition to USF aims to simplify these complexities, but the effort required poses a significant challenge. USF is designed to streamline firmware architecture, reducing boot time and flash footprint.

Summary of Transformation Protocol

The FFS-to-USF Transformation Protocol (FTP) is a key feature, enabling automated transformation of legacy FFS to USF. It dynamically learns the FFS structure and evaluates dependencies to facilitate this process. The FTP works with a Silicon Package Transformation (SPT) module, which is silicon-agnostic and supports integration of various firmware packages. This ensures USF compatibility across different boot loaders and supports split architecture multi-store flash images for updates.

Implementation and Advantages

The transformation protocol reduces firmware development costs and manual effort, while the simplified ACPI interface supports seamless boot, update, and recovery capabilities. Technical advantages include reduced boot time and a smaller SPI flash footprint. The approach is designed to be accessible to those skilled in the art, offering a practical solution to the challenges of transitioning from legacy firmware to USF.