Lenovo Enhanced Experience - Extensible Firmware Interface (Part 1)

[mkohut_Lenovo]

Part 1 of the Lenovo Enhanced Experience Video interview in which Matt Kohut and John Mese talk about EFI - Extensible Firmware Interface and its effect on improving Windows 7 performance on Lenovo systems.

[Perfguy]

I'll put this out before anyone asks...

The super-fast EFI BIOS shown for the T400s is a prototype.  Like most concept-cars it will be a while before this ships in a product.

But it sure is cool.

[UberSteve]

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Perfguy wrote:

I'll put this out before anyone asks...

The super-fast EFI BIOS shown for the T400s is a prototype.  Like most concept-cars it will be a while before this ships in a product.

But it sure is cool.

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Aww ;-( I was really hoping this was going to be part of the Lenovo EE...all this talk of EE and BIOS updates. Has an ETA been suggested?

[emoacht]

I watched this video carefully but I am confused when John Mese talks about 1.5 sec bios boot time "in the future."  I understand this phrase "in the future" means NOT current EE but future EE probably when new Intel line "Calpella" come out.  Is it correct?

And, what is real speed gain of EE as for BIOS?  I have seen some videos comparing boot time between EE enabled T400s and non-EE one.  The boot time (from power button is pushed, until boot logo disappears)  of EE one is around 6-7 sec while that of non-EE one is 9-10 sec.  So, 2-3 sec is the real speed gain?

[Perfguy]

emoacht - Thanks for the questions and providing the opportunity for me to clarify.

The 1.5s BIOS Post time is only on the special "concept car" T400s.  It is a heavily tweaked BIOS just to demonstrate the advancements in the technology.  I can not confirm when we will release UEFI systems (thus the "in the future" comment) but know that we are working on it now and it is in the upcoming product roadmap.  Let me be clear, though, that Calpella platform systems will launch with a legacy BIOS implementation.  You can expect, however, EE work from the Montevina Win7 launch systems will carry forward into the Calpella products.

The real speed gain of EE BIOS depends on the system.  On average we took our BIOS Post times down from "in the teens" to about 8s (measured from the start of EE work to the release).  The biggest single fix we made as part of our EE work however, was about a 2-3s improvement as you indicated.  Very good estimate!

Hope this helps.

-john

[emoacht]

Perfguy wrote:

The real speed gain of EE BIOS depends on the system.  On average we took our BIOS Post times down from "in the teens" to about 8s (measured from the start of EE work to the release).  The biggest single fix we made as part of our EE work however, was about a 2-3s improvement as you indicated.  Very good estimate!

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Thanks John for your in-depth explanation. Everything is clear for me now.  I cannot really wait for super-fast UEFI BIOS to be implemented to future ThinkPad!

Thanks again.

emoacht