Guidelines For Use Of The Term "Extensible Firmware Interface; Conventions Used In This Document; Data Structure Descriptions; Typographic Conventions - Intel Extensible Firmware Interface Specification

Extensible Firmware Interface Specification
1.8

Conventions Used in This Document

This document uses typographic and illustrative conventions described below.
1.8.1

Data Structure Descriptions

The Intel architecture processors of the IA-32 family are "little endian" machines. This means that
the low-order byte of a multi-byte data item in memory is at the lowest address, while the high-
order byte is at the highest address. Intel ® Itanium
endian" and "big endian" operation. All implementations designed to conform to this specification
will use "little endian" operation.
In some memory layout descriptions, certain fields are marked reserved. Software must initialize
such fields to zero, and ignore them when read. On an update operation, software must preserve
any reserved field.
1.8.2

Typographic Conventions

The following typographic conventions are used in this document to illustrate programming
concepts:
This typeface is use to indicate prototype code.
Prototype
This typeface is used to indicate arguments.
Argument
This typeface is used to indicate actual code or a programming construct.
Name
register This typeface is used to indicate a processor register.
1.9

Guidelines for Use of the Term "Extensible Firmware Interface"

The following recommendations are offered for developers creating products or documentation that
have the need to make reference to this specification. The intent of these recommendations is to
ensure consistent usage of the name of the specification in the industry and to avoid ambiguous or
out of context use that might otherwise cause confusion.
•
In any given piece of collateral or other materials
"
Extensible Firmware Interface,:" the first use and all prominent uses of "Extensible Firmware
Interface" should be fully spelled out and immediately followed by "EFI" in parentheses. This
will establish that EFI is being used only as an abbreviation. For example, "The Extensible
Firmware Interface (hereafter "EFI") is an architecture specification."
•
After the first use where "Extensible Firmware Interface" is fully spelled out, "EFI" may be
used standalone. As indicated above, the abbreviation should only be used where necessary,
e.g. where space constrained or to avoid excessive repetition in text and the abbreviation should
not be used in any prominent places, such as in titles or paragraph headings.
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processors may be configured for both "little
™
where it is necessary to abbreviate
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