The Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) specification defines a new model for the interface between operating system and firmware. The interface provides platform related information to the operating system as well as boot and runtime service calls that are available to the OS/OS loader. Together, these provide a well defined environment for booting operating system(s) and running pre-boot applications. This specification greatly enhances the interoperability of operating systems on a variety of platforms.

The System Abstraction Layer Specification specifies the requirements to develop platform firmware for Itanium® processor family systems. The primary objective of this specification is to provide an abstraction of the platform hardware that permits a uniform interface to Itanium® processor family operating systems. The specification also allows platform innovation and optimization with maximum reuse of platform firmware across several generations of platforms.

The Itanium® Processor Family Error Handling Guide describes error handling on Itanium®-based systems. It provides guidelines for firmware and operating systems to take advantage of the advanced machine check architecture of Itanium®-based systems.

Leading hardware and software vendors have formed an industry group to develop the DIG64 guidelines. These guidelines establish basic system building blocks, interfaces, and programming conventions for upcoming Itanium® Processor Family based servers and their system-level software in order to define hardware and software compatibility and interoperability. The Design Interoperability (DIG64) specification provides a lot of useful information. For help with creating interoperable Itanium® processor family server solutions, see the Developers Interface Guide for Servers.