AoE boot firmware table

Introduction

The AoE Boot Firmware Table (aBFT) is a block of information containing various parameters useful to the AoE boot process. It is the mechanism whereby the boot firmware conveys information about the boot device to the loaded operating system.

Location

The aBFT can be located by scanning through base memory (address 0x00000 to address 0x09FFFF) for the table header signature. The table must be aligned on a 16-byte boundary, and the checksum must be correct.

Conventions

The aBFT follows the structure of an ACPI table.

All quantities are little-endian.

All fields marked as reserved must be filled with zeroes.

Structure

Field Byte Offset Byte Length
Signature 0 4
Length 4 4
Revision 8 1
Checksum 9 1
OEMID 10 6
OEM Table ID 16 8
Reserved 24 12
AoE Shelf 36 2
AoE Slot 38 1
Reserved 39 1
MAC Address 40 6
Signature

'aBFT' signature for the AoE Boot Firmware Table.

Length

Length in bytes of the entire aBFT, including the signature.

Revision

Must be set to 1.

Checksum

Entire table must sum to zero.

OEMID

ACPI OEM ID. All unused trailing bytes must be zero.

OEM Table ID

For the aBFT the Table ID is the Manufacturer's Model ID. All unused trailing bytes must be zero.

AoE Shelf

Shelf number of the AoE disk used for boot.

AoE Slot

Slot number of the AoE disk used for boot.

MAC Address

Ethernet MAC address of the network card used for boot.


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