Policy description technique in UEFI firmware
View Patent ↗In a method of building a firmware component to execute a sequence of instructions in a device having a computer, a plurality of build files is processed to form a set of buildable statements of hardware policy. The buildable statements are decoded to form a Configuration Manager namespace. Contents of the Configuration Manager namespace are linked to a UEFI compatible kernel program having a Configuration Manager capability. Alternatively, a data stream representing the contents of the Configuration Manager namespace is encoded to form a Configuration Manager database readable by the UEFI compatible kernel program at a run-time. A plurality of UEFI device driver programs and the UEFI compatible kernel program are linked to form the firmware component.
1. A method of building a firmware component to execute a sequence of instructions in a device comprising a computer, the method comprising:
processing a plurality of build files to form a set of buildable statements of hardware policy;
decoding the buildable statements to form a Configuration Manager namespace;
performing an action selected from the list consisting of
a first action of linking contents of the Configuration Manager namespace to a Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) compatible kernel program having a Configuration Manager capability, and
a second action of encoding a data stream representing the contents of the Configuration Manager namespace to form a Configuration Manager database readable by the UEFI compatible kernel program at a run-time; and
linking a plurality of UEFI device driver programs and the UEFI compatible kernel program to form the firmware component.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the Configuration Manager is configured to operate as a microkernel thread and to provide services to a board module.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the Configuration Manager is configured to operate as a microkernel thread and to provide services to a platform module.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
forming buildable statements of Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) policy.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the Configuration Manager provides services using Pre-Extensible Firmware interface module to Pre-Extensible Firmware Interface module interface (PPI).
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the Configuration Manager provides services using a driver execution environment (DXE) interface.
7. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium containing a representation of the firmware component formed by the method according to claim 1 .
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
said performing comprises performing the first action.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
said performing comprises performing the second action.