Intel� Boot Loader Development Kit Available for Embedded Platforms

• Intel® Boot Loader Development Kit Now for Embedded Platforms

On the 28th July 2011, Intel announced the availability of the Intel® Boot Loader Development Kit (Intel® BLDK), a software toolkit that allows the creation of customized firmware offerings for embedded Intel processor-based platforms without requiring a full BIOS (Basic Input-Output System) solution. This offering provides developers with a more flexible solution that helps to lower bill of materials costs, reduce boot times and offers greater firmware initialization flexibility and reusability. This is free and publicly available software with the initial release supporting platforms based on the Intel® Atom Processor E6xx Series.

Overview of Intel® Boot Loader Development Kit

The Intel® Boot Loader Development Kit (Intel® BLDK) is a software toolkit that allows creation of customized and optimized initialization firmware solutions for embedded Intel® processor-based platforms. The Intel BLDK enables rapid development of firmware for fixed-function embedded designs—those requiring basic initialization and functionality rather than the full capabilities delivered with a traditional BIOS.

The foundation of the Intel BLDK is Intel’s latest implementation of the UEFI Specification Version 2.3 is the Intel® UEFI Development Kit 2010 (Intel® UDK2010). Consequently, the Intel BLDK is fully compliant with the latest UEFI standards and compatible for use with the Intel® UEFI Development Kit Debugger Tool and UEFI 2.0 Shell. Because Intel BLDK is based on open UEFI standards and the Intel UDK2010 implementation, a significant portion of the source code is openly available to provide flexibility for customizing the firmware initialization of code.

Development Kit Components

• Rich Code Base: Based on the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), the Intel BLDK provides a plethora of features and functionality required in embedded systems.
• Reference Implementations: Example reference board images from Intel provide a baseline from which developers can customize their system firmware images.
• GUI Tools: An integrated development environment facilitates easy navigation, modification, and debug of the underlying code base. Module selection and build tools allow custom image creation without direct code changes.
• Documentation: Comprehensive instructional documents enable self-sufficiency and effective support, no matter what the size of the project.

Benefits

• No Cost or Royalties: Intel BLDK helps reduce BOM costs.
• Reduced Boot Times: Customers can optimize firmware for reduced boot times and smaller firmware size.
• Rich Feature Set: Includes power management and the ability to boot to a variety of alternate devices.
• Greater Flexibility: Allows developers full control to create and customize firmware initialization.
• Greater Reusability: UEFI standards help create firmware solutions that can be widely reused.
• Rapid Firmware Development: Tools and development environment allow for rapid creation and customizing of reference firmware implementation.
• Ecosystem Support: Members of the Intel® Embedded Alliance provide a wide array of value-added products, solutions, and services based on the Intel BLDK.

The product brief of Intel® Boot Loader Development Kit can be obtained at http://goo.gl/ubXGQ

For more information and to download of the Intel BLDK, please visit www.intel.com/go/bldk.