Intel Working On Some Interesting Coreboot Improvements: Multi-CPU Support, SMM

Last week during Facebook's Open Compute Project (OCP) Summit, some interesting details were revealed by Intel and their work on this open-source hardware initialization effort alternative to proprietary BIOS/firmware.

One is that Intel is working on multi-CPU support within Coreboot for multi-socket server platforms. The code for this has yet to be published.

The other is that Intel is working on an SMM replacement called PRM. The System Management Mode (SMM) is traditionally the CPU ring where the system firmware operates for its purposes around power management and other hardware control behavior.

Thanks to @intel #coreboot @coreboot_org gets multi cpu support on #intel server platforms. Also a SMM replacement called „PRM“ will be available. This was made public by #OCP #OCPSummit @OpenComputePrj pic.twitter.com/HNkgk3NPWv

— Zaolin (@_zaolin_) March 19, 2019

PRM is the Protected Runtime Mechanism and is designed to offer better performance, lower latency, and other improvements over traditional SMM mode. The OCP Summit talk about SMM/PRM can be seen here:

From the OCP Summit, Facebook also continues experiencing great success with Coreboot and LinuxBoot.

Sadly nothing was announced yet on the possibilities of Intel open-sourcing the FSP but am following up with them on that.