V1 of the Entity Framework allows you to use stored procedures in two main ways: Mapping Create, Update and Delete entity operations to appropriate stored procedures. Doing a FunctionImport that allows you to return an enumeration of Entities...

The Entity Framework's provider model makes it possible for it to work over different database's. The idea being that someone, either the database vendor or a third party, can write a provider that allows the Entity Framework to work with that database...