The document discusses challenges in developing firmware for embedded systems including thermal management as processors advance, developing firmware applications before standard frameworks existed, and board debugging. It proposes solutions like initializing thermal registers and supporting ACPI, using the UEFI specification for standard interfaces, and providing firmware status and hardware/firmware debugging options. Benefits of the solutions include increased performance, business continuity, a foundation for security and compliance, investment protection by combining processor generations, and enhanced security from a solid hardware foundation.

1. Company
Theclientdesigns,manufacturersandmarketsfaulttolerantservers,mobile,tablets&
Desktop.BIOSisthenecessaryevilofembeddedsystems.BIOSdevelopersknowtoowell
thatwhilemosteveryoneneedsaBIOS,fewhasthepatience,expertise,orbudgetto
developtheone.Inthetraditionalfirmwaremodel,theBIOSdiscoversandinitializesthe
hardware.
TheOSreliesontheBIOStodiscoverthehardwareandistypicallytightlyTheOSreliesontheBIOStodiscoverthehardwareandistypicallytightly
coupledtoBIOStoprovidethecontrolmethodsforAdvancedConfigurationandpower
interface(ACPI).Thisisturnenablestheprocesstosupportthermalmonitoringand
performancecontrol.
Challenges:ThreespecificBIOS
challengescancreateperplexingproblems
thatleadtomisseddeadlines,poor
emeddeddesigns,budgetoverrunsandemeddeddesigns,budgetoverrunsand
generalemoionaldistress.These
developmentchallengesareinthearea
of:
*Thermalmanagement
*Firmwareapplicationdevelopment
*Boarddebugging
ThechallengesThechallenges:
Thermalmanagement:Asaprocessortechnologyadvances.Thermalmanagementfor
embeddedsystembecomesessentialtoensurethetemperaturearemaintainedwithin
specificrange.Whenprocessorpowersuppliesexceedstheirtolerancerange,permanent
damagetoprocessororothercomponentsmayoccur.
Firmwareapplicationdevelopment:BeforetheframeworkforEFIbecameavailable,
mostBIOScodingwasdoneaproprietaryenvironmentparticulartoaBIOSvendor
usingassemblylanguage.Anagreed–uponsetupofAPIs,well–definedfunctionsforusingassemblylanguage.Anagreed–uponsetupofAPIs,well–definedfunctionsfor
prebootandruntimeservices.
BoardDebugging:Aboarddebuggingutilityisapowerfultoolthatenablethe
firmwareengineerstoeasilyfindbugs,speeddevelopmenttimeand
boardbring-upandsimplifyapplicationtransferbetweenboardandprojectworkgroups.

2. TheSolutions:
Theframeworkwedevelopedinitializesthethermalenableregistersandprovides
methodsforAdvanceConfigurationandPowerInterface(ACPI).Thisisturnenables
theprocessortosupportthermalmonitoringandperformancecontrol.
TheUEFIspecificationdefinesastandardinterfacebetweentheOSandplatform
firmware.Datatableswithintheinterfacecontainsplatform-relatedinformationplus
bootandruntimeservicecallavailabletotheOSanditsloader.Together,thesefeaturesbootandruntimeservicecallavailabletotheOSanditsloader.Together,thesefeatures
providesastandardenvironmentforbootinganOSandrunningprebootapplications.
BIOSdebuggingoptionsintotwobroadcategories:firmwarestatusandhardwareand
firmwaredebugging.
Firmwarestatusdebuggingconsistsofoutput
codesonlyandarenotconsideredtrue
debugging.Thecodeincludes:
*EFIstatuscodesthroughtheserialconsole*EFIstatuscodesthroughtheserialconsole
port
*Postcodes(fromport80h)
*Beepcode(fromaudiodevice)
*Truehardwareandfirmwaredebugging
optionsconsistsof:
*Sourcecodeleveldebuggingtoolduring
thePEI,DXE,andOSbootphasesforEFIthePEI,DXE,andOSbootphasesforEFI
andnativedebugsupportforEFI
frameworkplatforms,Targetprobe
debugport.
BusinessBenefits
*Moreperformanceandincreasedconsolidationratios
*Businesscontinuityandincreaseduseruptimethroughvirtualmachinefailover,load
balancing,anddisasterrecoverycapabilitiesenabledbyseamlesslivemigrationbalancing,anddisasterrecoverycapabilitiesenabledbyseamlesslivemigration
*Afoundationfortrustandcompliancewithsecuritytechnologybuiltin,allowingyouto
verifythetrustworthinessofavirtualizedpoolofplatforms
*Investmentprotection:Combinesexistingprocessorgenerationsintothesame
virtualizedserverpool,extendingfailover,improvingloadbalancing,andprovidingthe
mostvaluefromexistingITinfrastructure
*Theenhancedsecuritythatasolidhardwarefoundationprovides