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Breaking News! AMD is open sourcing the API for the x86 bootloader (community.amd.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I think this means we will eventually see a fully open source Coreboot/Libreboot soon. Someone correct me if I am wrong please!

the openSIL github repo

I'm not clear about where this API sits relative to the AMD Platform Security Processor.

found via this post: https://lemmy.world/post/134243

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm surprised that chipmakers waited this long. I have the feeling they all treat their firmware divisions as a necessary evil.

Has there ever been positive news associated with the lowest levels of firmware, or is it at best begrudging "AGESA 4.2.0.0 finally fixed the issue where the memory is clocked down to 250MHz when there are two runners on base" fix notices.

If they can toss the problem on a bunch of enthusiasts and people willing to finance open-source developers, they get it our of their hair and earn some public praise.

Realistically, it might be interesting for long-term platform support-- if someone wants to keep tweaking and optimizing a 10-year-old platform, they'll have more tools at their disposal to do so.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I guess at some point the actual hardware initialization was still something to set yourself they could use to set themselves apart from others. Then it would involve patents and what not. But yes, I can't imagine that there is a lot of magic left for the established platforms. It might be different for entirely new beasts like Apple's "new" machines with a lot of custom chips.