» » The UEFI 2.9 Specification

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Forgive the delay in publishing, but I've been taking a paternity leave from work recently, and just now getting back into the swing of things.

UEFI Spec v2.9 was released recently, and I didn't want that to go by without me mentioning it.  From the UEFI Forum:

Monday, March 22, 2021

The new specification offers direct implications for many computing platforms, from IoT devices to high-end servers.

Beaverton, Ore.—March 22, 2021—The UEFI Forum today announced the release of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) 2.9 specification. The next iteration of firmware specification innovation defines a model for the interface between personal-computer operating systems and platform firmware.

“The UEFI Forum is focused on aiding the evolving technology and open source ecosystems,” said Mark Doran, UEFI Forum President. “The UEFI 2.9 specification illustrates our commitment to the industry with added support of newer hardware types like CXL and NVDIMMs, as well as increased support for Arm and RISC-V processors.”

UEFI 2.9 Specification Highlights

  • Support for discovering and describing CXL devices
  • Support for publishing DTB in UEFI Configuration Table
  • Clarification of Update Capsule runtime call on some architectures like Arm AArch64
  • Introduction of unaccepted memory type

Download the specifications here to learn more about these and other updates. The specification is available in PDF format and will soon be available in searchable HTML format.

Here is a list of the changes, proceeded by their Mantis numbers:
  • 1866 GetInfo() of Adapter Information Protocol should have a provision for IHV to return no data
  • 1982 Clarify the PKCS#7 SignedData structure of EFI_VARIABLE_AUTHENTICATION
  • 1986 Need a mechanism using which browser to exit out of IHV formset silently without any popup
  • 1989 NVDIMM SPA Location Cookie
  • 2024 CXL CPER Records
  • 2042 New Event Group EFI_EVENT_GROUP_AFTER_READY_TO_BOOT
  • 2043 New Event Group EFI_EVENT_GROUP_BEFORE_EXIT_BOOT_SERVICES
  • 2046 Add support for Key 14 & 56 for Japanese keyboard layout
  • 2053 Figure/Table Numbers are Duplicated in Appendices
  • 2062 Table numbering to restart for each chapter
  • 2065 CXL proposal for CDAT table extraction from devices
  • 2093 UpdateCapsule ScatterGatherList cache maintenance
  • 2129 Add DTB Configuration Table standard GUID
  • 2131 Clarify Console requirements
  • 2134 Introduce unaccepted memory type
  • 2155 Typo in Arm Processor CPER Error Section
  • 2167 CPER for CXL Component Events
  • 2185 Declaration for UEFI 2.9 specification in the System Table
  • 2190 Misc. spec review feedback
  • 2199 EFI_IMAGE_EXECUTION_INFO_TABLE references
  • 2200 Config tables references from section 4.6
  • 2204 Typo in GUID definition for EFI_MANAGED_NETWORK_SERVICE_BINDING_PROTOCOL
  • 2212 Incorrect cross reference to User Information Table

UPDATE:  Nikolaj Schlej has a tradition of publishing a tweet thread commenting on spec changes, such as UEFI spec changes.  He has done a great job, so I'm re-publishing his summary below.  You can follow Nikolaj at:  https://twitter.com/NikolajSchlej.  Thanks Nikolaj!

7:00 AM
William Leara

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  1. William Leara1:38 PM

    Thanks a ton, Nikolaj, I've updated the post with your tweet thread.

    ReplyDelete

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