APPARATUS, METHOD AND SYSTEM THAT STORES BIOS IN NON-VOLATILE RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY

摘要

A non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) is used in a computer system to perform multiple roles in the platform storage hierarchy. The NVRAM is byte-rewritable and byte-erasable by the processor. The NVRAM is coupled to the processor to be directly accessed by the processor without going through an I/O subsystem. The NVRAM stores a Basic Input and Output System (BIOS). During a Pre-Extensible Firmware Interface (PEI) phase of the boot process, the cache within the processor can be used in a write-back mode for execution of the BIOS.

主权项

1. An apparatus comprising:
a processor comprising:
a processing core;a first interface to couple the processor to a non-volatile memory (NVM), the NVM to store a compressed Basic Input and Output System (BIOS) image;a cache to support execution of a boot process; anda second interface to couple the processing core to a non-volatile random access memory, the processing core to execute program code directly out of the non-volatile random access memory, the non-volatile random access memory having a larger capacity and a lower latency than the non-volatile memory, the non-volatile random access memory to store an uncompressed BIOS image, wherein the uncompressed BIOS image is to be produced by the processor from the compressed BIOS image during a boot process, wherein the cache is permitted to write back to the non-volatile random access memory during execution of the uncompressed BIOS image from the cache.