AMD Reportedly Allows Disabling PSP Secure Processor With Latest AGESA

[starshipeleven]

Hmm, a guy just posted interesting news on Coreboot mailing list. It seems Dell also allows you to order some laptops with ME disabled ("Intel vPro -- ME Inoperable, Custom Order" option).

https://liliputing.com/2017/12/dell-...-disabled.html

Michael

[leipero]

Still technically wrong as both are 2 different types of board firmware, although actual differences between BIOS and UEFI are not terribly obvious for most PC users (on Windows).

Another type of board firmware is Coreboot, or dumb BootROMs used in embedded devices.

Yeah, but both serve same purpose, for sure, UEFI is more complex and have more features/stuff to do, but logically it would fit, it needs to be named diferently for technological reasons (changes etc.).

[artivision]

This is a problem only if you wanted to support said content distributors and bought their content. Did you? I won't.

Worst comment ever, wait and see when every web page need this.

[juno]

Michael have you asked AMD for a statement yet? It's clearly a topic of high interest and the effects of this switch are not clear, nor the feature plans.

[Adarion]

OK, that deserves "post of the day".

Ah, the bridgman sees, but he's not yet sure if he's allowed to talk...
Could you maybe ask internally if you could shed some light upon this PSP situation?

There are a lot of machines with PSP by now and I fear most will never see that updated FW. (Unless you can install Coreboot to your machine which would be a very lucky case.)

[starshipeleven]

Worst comment ever, wait and see when every web page need this.

And this would change the situation how?

A system without PSP (bought by a conscious user) wouldn't be able to browse the internet just as a system with PSP AND the same conscious user that decides to NOT use that system to browse the internet.

The only way to fight DRM is not buying/supporting the media needing it, thus removing the need for DRM in the first place. "voting with your wallet" and all that.

This assuming that most people aren't flabbergasting morons biting any bait, which is not the case, whatever we do the mass market will bite the full bait and pull us with them anyway.

[Sonadow]

PSP was originally released by Sony in Japan in 2004. This cheap AMD ripoff came with Ryzen this year. It's so useless it can't even run PSP games though.

Damn it, you made spew water all over my desk in the office.

Speaking as a PSP and a PS Vita owner.

[cjcox]

PSP was originally released by Sony in Japan in 2004. This cheap AMD ripoff came with Ryzen this year. It's so useless it can't even run PSP games though.

Have you tried to run original PSP games on it? Maybe that's what it actually does. Of course, it could be a whole Playstation 4 emulator. It might even be Half Life 3. Or maybe a copy of Facebook Messenger. Some have reported the string "Sony BMG"....

[danieru]

Please remember that a PC to be sold with a Windows 10 sticker needs to meet some requirements with UEFI/TPM/SecureBoot.
I guess AMD doesn't want to ignore the Windows market...

So the problem is yet once again, Microsoft. Last thing I ever bought from Microsoft was Windows Visa, but it's not enough. We're going to have to burn Microsoft down in order to stop this madness.
I think I speak for everybody when I say I'm tired of features that are nothing but another way to restrict users freedoms sold as "security" features.

[torsionbar28]

Anyone know of a primer on the PSP--when it was introduced, etc.?

it was introduced with the family 16h processors from AMD, circa 2013. There was no PSP in the fam 15h (Bulldozer), so the final generation of non-PSP processors from AMD was the Opteron 4300, 6300, and FX series.