# Difference between U-Boot & CFE?

**URL:** <https://forum.openwrt.org/t/difference-between-u-boot-cfe/160391>\
**Category:** Hardware Questions and Recommendations\
**Created:** [May 16, 2023, 10:29pm UTC](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/difference-between-u-boot-cfe/160391 "2023-05-16T22:29:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mahdi-pc](https://forum.openwrt.org/user_avatar/forum.openwrt.org/mahdi-pc/32/62995_2.png) [@Mahdi-pc](https://forum.openwrt.org/u/Mahdi-pc)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2023, 10:29pm UTC](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/difference-between-u-boot-cfe/160391/1 "2023-05-16T22:29:44Z")

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Hi friends, can anyone tell me the difference between U-Boot and CFE? I have two routers whose bootloaders are different, one is U-Boot and the other is CFE. What is the difference between them, especially in the initial boot speed?

BT Home Hub 5 Type A : U-Boot  
&  
SKY SR102 : CFE

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**Author:** ![lleachii](https://forum.openwrt.org/letter_avatar/lleachii/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@lleachii](https://forum.openwrt.org/u/lleachii)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2023, 10:16am UTC](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/difference-between-u-boot-cfe/160391/2 "2023-05-17T10:16:31Z")

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> **[Das U-Boot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_U-Boot)**
>
> Das U-Boot (subtitled "the Universal Boot Loader" and often shortened to U-Boot; see History for more about the name) is an open-source, primary boot loader used in embedded devices to package the instructions to boot the device's operating system kernel. It is available for a number of computer architectures, including 68k, ARM, Blackfin, MicroBlaze, MIPS, Nios, SuperH, PPC, RISC-V and x86.
> U-Boot is both a first-stage and second-stage bootloader. It is loaded by the system's ROM (e.g. onchip R...

> **[Common Firmware Environment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Firmware_Environment)**
>
> Common Firmware Environment (CFE), sometimes pronounced as 'cafe', is a firmware interface and bootloader developed by Broadcom for 32-bit and 64-bit system-on-a-chip systems. It is intended to be a flexible toolkit of CPU initialization and bootstrap code for use on embedded processors (typically running on MIPS32/64 instruction set CPUs found in Broadcom SoCs). It is roughly analogous to the BIOS on the IBM PC platform. Its source-code is available on Open source license from Broadcom. Commo It...