IBoot


iBoot is the stage 2 bootloader for all Apple products. It replaces the old bootloader, BootX. Compared with its predecessor, iBoot improves authentication performed in the boot chain.
For macOS, the boot process starts by running code stored in secured UEFI Boot ROM. Boot ROM has two primary responsibilities: to initialize system hardware and to select an operating system to run.
For iOS, the boot process starts by running the device's Boot ROM code. In systems with S1 processors or A9 or earlier A-series processors, the Boot ROM loads the Low-Level Bootloader, which loads iBoot. In systems with newer processors, the Boot ROM loads iBoot itself. If all goes well, iBoot will then proceed to load the iOS kernel as well as the rest of the operating system. If the LLB or iBoot fails to load iOS, or fails to verify iOS, the bootloader jumps to DFU mode; otherwise it loads the remaining kernel modules.
On macOS, iBoot is located in /System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi. Once the kernel and all drivers necessary for booting are loaded, the boot loader starts the kernel’s initialization procedure. At this point, enough drivers are loaded for the kernel to find the root device.