It is a replacement for BIOS that first showed up on Itanium platforms. It adds quite a bit of complexity but also opens the door for new features like secure b

It is a replacement for BIOS that first showed up on Itanium platforms. It adds quite a bit of complexity but also opens the door for new features like secure boot. I won't argue whether it is useful but it is in nearly all new desktop hardware including all Apple x86 hardware. It is here to stay.