UEFIstandarden

The UEFI standard, or Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, is a modern specification that defines how a computer's operating system interacts with the system's firmware. It replaces the older Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) firmware interface. UEFI is designed to be more flexible, secure, and feature-rich than BIOS, allowing for faster boot times, support for larger hard drives, and improved networking capabilities during the boot process.

Key features of UEFI include support for graphical interfaces, mouse input, and network booting directly from the firmware, without the need for an operating system to be loaded first. It also introduces a more robust security model, known as Secure Boot, which helps protect against malware and rootkits by ensuring that only trusted software is loaded during the boot sequence. UEFI supports larger disk partitions (greater than 2 terabytes) through its GUID Partition Table (GPT) scheme, which is an improvement over BIOS's Master Boot Record (MBR).

UEFI firmware is typically stored on a chip on the motherboard and is the first software that runs when a computer is powered on. It initializes the hardware and then loads the operating system bootloader. This transition from BIOS to UEFI has been a significant advancement in personal computer architecture, offering enhanced performance, security, and functionality for modern computing environments.