2.2 BIOS and EFI
For decades, the BIOS (basic input/output system) was responsible for initializing PCs and notebook computers. This is a program that is executed immediately after the computer has been switched on. BIOS is responsible for detecting the hardware components, configuring the hardware, and starting the operating system. The term BIOS has been in use for these functions for almost 50 years!
The traditional BIOS carries a lot of legacy issues with it. That's why Intel started developing the EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) successor to BIOS in 1998. Later, AMD, Apple, Microsoft, and others participated in further development, after which the software got the new abbreviation UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). The ...
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