unified extensible firmware interface (OS) (UEFI)

Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) is a unified extensible firmware interface( EFI) supported by hardware manufacturers and operating system software companies.

The UEFI interface provides the interface between firmware and the operating system and replaces the Basic Input/Output System( BIOS).

The interface consists of tables that contain platform-dependent information and provide a standard environment for booting operating systems. They work without boot sectors, which are located on optical storage media or hard disks when using BIOS. The UEFI specifications were developed by the Unified EFI Forum in 2005 from the EFI specifications.