Patent ID: 8127312

Claim:
A method comprising: initializing a processing system according to predetermined basic input/output system (BIOS) settings for the processing system; launching a boot target on the processing system; launching a platform-specific-platform application to run within the boot target; determining whether firmware runtime services is available via the boot target by issuing a firmware call, wherein the firmware call includes a directive comprising: a request relating to an exposed runtime service of the BIOS; and a trigger capable of initiating a recognition event in the BIOS such that the BIOS recognizes the firmware call as comprising the directive; if the firmware runtime services is accessible, determining whether the platform-specific application has direct access to the BIOS or whether the platform-specific application communicates with the BIOS via the boot target, by evaluating a variable name associated with the firmware call; if the platform-specific application communicates with the BIOS via the boot target: parsing, by the BIOS, the firmware call to retrieve the directive; modifying the request related to exposed runtime service to a second request for an unexposed runtime target function; and responding, by the BIOS, to the directive by passing return data to the platform-specific application via the boot target.