SUPER MICRO Computer I2DMR-8G2 user manual Introduction to the EFI Platform

Chapter 5: Software Installation

Chapter 5

Software Drivers and the Operating System

Installation

After all the hardware has been installed, you need to install the operating system, and other software drivers. The necessary drivers are all included on the Supermicro CDs that came packaged with your motherboard.

5-1 Introduction to the EFI Platform

The EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) Platform is a new firmware architecture that provides interface between the operating system and the computer firmware (BIOS). It abstracts system data specified in the system BIOS and translates it into an object-oriented language that can be easily accessed by the OS. It provides a rich environment for system pre-installation. EFI initializes chipset, buses, drivers, and locates OS loaders. Once the EFI Firmware boots up the system, it hands over the system operation to the OS. When running in the background in the OS environment, EFI still provides the system with simple runtime services such as monitoring firmware settings and system reset. Due to the interoperability between the OS and the system BIOS, EFI optimizes the performance of the 64-bit Itanium2 systems.

OS

Primitives	OS Loader
EFI
System protocols	Data Abstracts
BIOS
Devices	Drivers

Hardware

5-1