What is one significant benefit of utilizing Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) compared to BIOS?

One significant benefit of utilizing Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) compared to traditional BIOS is that UEFI supports larger hard drives and enables faster boot times. UEFI can handle drives that exceed the 2.2 TB limit that BIOS struggles with, thanks to its use of the GUID Partition Table (GPT) instead of the older Master Boot Record (MBR) partitioning scheme. This means that systems using UEFI can take full advantage of modern storage technology, accommodating much larger drives, which is essential in today's data-intensive environments.

Additionally, UEFI can initialize hardware and complete the boot process much faster than BIOS, reducing the time it takes for a system to start up. This speed increase is primarily due to UEFI's ability to execute in a 32-bit or 64-bit mode, which allows for more efficient processing as it bypasses many of the traditional steps involved in the BIOS boot sequence.

The other options do not present accurate comparisons: UEFI is not limited to legacy systems, as it is designed for modern hardware; it actually enhances security features compared to BIOS, including options for secure boot; and it is not exclusively software-based, as it integrates both software and hardware components for its operations.