[ltp] Re: Can you trust your firmware?

[Andrew Barr]

chris@idlelion.net wrote:
> I would think ThinkPads starting with the T61 would be a bit of an easier
> target since they use the new EFI(?) instead of BIOS, so I know they can
> use MacOS more easily.

Uh, no.

EFI is just an interface, it says nothing about hardware internals, about
anything that would be required to create an open BIOS. In the sense that
an open firmware solution is concerned, the legacy PC BIOS interface is no
more open or documented than EFI is. EFI is the face the firmware puts of
for the world (e.g. the OS), it doesn't give us any useful information
about things like hardware initialization that are done before the OS even
starts.

And do you have any links to show that Thinkpads are using EFI now? I did a
quick Google search and all I could pull up were videos and blog posts
about Thinkpads running OS X, which doesn't conclusively prove EFI support
because OS X now supports PC BIOS booting. I have never heard that the T61
uses EFI anywhere before. Seeing as it was dropped as a requirement for
Vista, I doubt we're going to see EFI much outside of the Mac world for a
long time.

-- 
Andrew Barr