[LinuxBIOS] Another dumb C question

[Joseph Smith]

Hello,
I have another newbie C question.
Is this the same as 2^9 ??

value = 9

(2 << (value - 1))

This will give me 512, but will it work no matter what "value" is?
Or does linuxbios already have a "to the power of" global function?

Thanks - Joe