28 IPF Platform Porting Considerations

When writing a UEFI driver, there are steps that can be taken to help make sure the driver functions properly on an IPF platform. The guidelines listed in this chapter help improve the portability of UEFI drivers, and explain some of the pitfalls that may be encountered when a UEFI driver is ported to an IPF platform.

Chapter 4 covers the general guidelines for implementing a UEFI Driver that is compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit CPU architectures. If a 32-bit UEFI Driver is being ported to IPF, then make sure the guidelines from Chapter 4 are followed. This chapter focuses on issues that are specific to IPF. In general, the guidelines for implementing a UEFI Driver for IPF are more rigorous that other CPU architectures. If a UEFI Driver is implemented and validated for IPF, then there is a good chance that the UEFI Driver can be easily ported to most of the other CPU architecture supported by the UEFI Specification.

In addition, the DIG64 Specification requires some protocols that are considered obsolete by the latest UEFI Specification. This means UEFI Drivers for IPF may have to produce some extra protocols from older versions of the EFI Specification and UEFI Specification in order to be conformant with the DIG64 Specification. The additional protocols are listed below. Other chapters of the guide provide recommendations on how to implement these protocols and this topic will not be covered further in this chapter.

  • Component Name Protocol

  • Driver Configuration Protocol

  • Driver Diagnostics Protocol