Intel Extensible Firmware Interface 1.8 Conventions Used in This Document, 1.9 Guidelines for Use of the Term Extensible Firmware Interface

Extensible Firmware Interface Specification

12 12/12/00 Version 1.02

1.8 Conventions Used in This Document

This document uses typographic and illustrative conventions described below.

The Intel architecture processors of the IA-32 family are “little endian” machines. This means that

the low-order byte of a multi-byte data item in memory is at the lowest address, while the high-

order byte is at the highest address. Intel

Itanium™ processors may be configured for both “little

endian” and “big endian” operation. All implementations designed to conform to this specification

will use “little endian” operation.

In some memory layout descriptions, certain fields are marked reserved. Software must initialize

such fields to zero, and ignore them when read. On an update operation, software must preserve

any reserved field.

The following typographic conventions are used in this document to illustrate programming

concepts:

Prototype This typeface is use to indicate prototype code.

Argument This typeface is used to indicate arguments.

Name This typeface is used to indicate actual code or a programming construct.

1.9 Guidelines for Use of the Term “Extensible Firmware Interface”

The following recommendations are offered for developers creating products or documentation that

have the need to make reference to this specification. The intent of these recommendations is to

ensure consistent usage of the name of the specification in the industry and to avoid ambiguous or

out of context use that might otherwise cause confusion.

• In any given piece of collateral or other materials where it is necessary to abbreviate

“Extensible Firmware Interface,:” the first use and all prominent uses of “Extensible Firmware

Interface” should be fully spelled out and immediately followed by “EFI” in parentheses. This

will establish that EFI is being used only as an abbreviation. For example, “The Extensible

Firmware Interface (hereafter “EFI”) is an architecture specification.”

• After the first use where “Extensible Firmware Interface” is fully spelled out, “EFI” may be

used standalone. As indicated above, the abbreviation should only be used where necessary,

e.g. where space constrained or to avoid excessive repetition in text and the abbreviation should

not be used in any prominent places, such as in titles or paragraph headings.