Jun. 24, 2009
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Intel has finally released its version 4.0 of the ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface)
specification, an impressive 727 pages document.
For more than 10 long years now, lead by Intel, server and computer manufacturers as well as operating system,
driver, BIOS, firmware and software developers have been working hard on this specification, which is designed to
enhance the configuration management and power saving features of most of the computer hardware in use today.
But despite all of this, there are still many flaws and in many implementations.
Overall, Intel is developing the Simple Firmware Interface (SFI) specifically for small and low power devices
like Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) with Atom processors, and is particularly targeting the Linux operating system
with this alternative.
Intel developer Len Brown is responsible both for version 0.6 of the SFI specification, which has been released as
a draft, and for a security patch to make the forthcoming 2.6.32 Linux kernel SFI compliant.
The very first Intel product to offer SFI compliance is Moorestown, a platform comprising a Lincroft Atom SoC
(System on Chip) with integrated memory controller and GPU core in combination with the single-chip Langwell chipset
and the Evans Wi-MAX module.
Intel's new industry specification states that SFI can be implemented in addition to, or as an alternative to ACPI,
in the firmware, either within a classic BIOS, (U)EFI, or with alternative firmware like OpenFirmware.
The SFI FAQ explains that SFI and ACPI can smoothly coexist side by side. Like ACPI, SFI even uses an Extended
System Description Table (XSDT) to give the operating system access to the extended configuration features of PCI-X
and PCI Express devices (Memory Mapped Configuration Space, MMConfig), whose addresses are written into the MCFG
table by the ACPI BIOS.
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Source: Linux News.
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