Extensible Firmware Interface File

File Extension: .efi Developer: Unified EFI Forum Views: 55667 Updated: 2011-04-10 12:15:58 Hex: N/A ASCII: N/A

Most computers use BIOS a form of firmware that is used as an interface between the operating system and the hardware due to limitations in BIOS especially in high end severs, because of this Intel developed EFI which has since become the UEFI specification which is managed by the Unified EFI Forum which includes most of the larger technology companies such as Microsoft,Intel, AMD etc.

EFI specifications include.

  » Booting from disks over 2TB in size

  » Shorter boot time

  » Architecture independent of Processor

  » Drivers independent of Processor

  » Modular design

Other improvements include a new disk partitioning that does not have the limitations of MBR.