MacIntel are based on EFI!

One of the question related to the MacIntel was: what type of firmware will be used by Apple? Today we have the answer in an Intel migration-dedicated TechNote: no BIOS, no firmware but EFI. EFI, or Extensible Firmware Interface, is an advanced BIOS developed by Intel and so far reserved for Itanium platform. It is rather an OpenFirmware than a BIOS, since EFI appears to the user as a Shell. EFI is not really being used in PC world for hte moment.
One should also mention that EFI has been developed around Intel Secured-platform (trusted computing). One can let EFI taking care of the memory management, or controlling the network to run a secured applciation. OS calls to the hardware are done via EFI drivers.
Why are we mentioning this point? Because, based on the EFI drivers definition, one will be able to limit the peripherals to be used or installed in the MacIntel. Indeed, PCI-E card firmware (such as the ones of new generation graphic cards) must be compatible with the computer firmware. So far on the mac, OpenFirmware was forcing card developers to create specific software to manage the card, one of the reason why Mac Edition graphic card were so expensive.