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Esos aparatos del demonio

Mis notas sobre lo que voy leyendo de ordenadores y periféricos

sábado, marzo 11, 2006

EFI y Blas 


Vale, el chiste del título es malísimo :-)

El caso es que Microsoft ha anunciado que Windows Vista de 32 bits no va a soportar EFI. Este es el sistema que utilizan los «MacIntel» en lugar de la BIOS, así que el anuncio de Microsoft significa que no va a funcionar Windows Vista en los Macs actuales (y Windows XP menos). A alguna gente le ha sentado muy mal.

En 64 bits parece que sí va a haber soporte para EFI y los Macs futuros se supone que llevarán procesadores de 64 bits. Además se supone que EFI es el sustituo de la BIOS (hace ya dos años lo decía aquí).

La pregunta clave es: ¿Por qué cambiar a EFI? ¿Qué ventajas tiene? En el foro de Ars Technica aparecen algunas:


Another thing I can do is, since it is an external hard disk, is boot from any Mac to any other Mac. This is also good for backups, restores, repairs, file transfers, and taking advantage of faster systems when all I own is a portable system.

The third thing is dynamic boot options. During bootup I can hit the 'option' key and choose what to boot from. The computer automatically detects all bootable volumes, such as USB keys, CDs, hard disks, and external hard disks, and gives you the choice of which to boot.


En el artículo sobre por qué no va a funcionar Widows XP citado antes dan otras:


There are a bunch of things that plug into EFI and the Framework which allow you to do various neat tricks, from CD playing with the computer 'off' to reading file systems so the machine can boot.


La Wikipedia pone más:


EFI allows vendors to create operating system-independent device drivers. [...]

Ideally, the EFI development model will move the concept of hardware drivers from the operating system back into the lowest level of the PC structure: the hardware itself. Traditionally, when a PC is first powered up, initial device initialization is performed by the BIOS in the PC's default environment—real mode—which dates back to the original IBM PC. The BIOS then turns control over to the operating system while still in real mode. Modern protected mode operating systems, however, cannot use the real mode functions provided by the BIOS. The operating system must therefore use its own protected mode drivers for each piece of hardware it wishes to use. With the EFI model, however, manufacturers will be free to write their own OS-independent hardware drivers which can be included within the device itself and can be directly used by modern operating systems. Such EFI drivers could also be used, for example, to allow the PC to connect to the Internet and retrieve updated drivers even before an OS is installed.


La verdad es que la BIOS es una de las partes más longevas de la arquitectura PC, creo que sólo igualada por la disquetera.

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