Intel Develops New Architecture firmware Universal Scalable Firmware (USF) aimed at simplifying the development of all components of the firmware software stack for various categories of devices, from servers to systems on Crystal (SOC). USF provides abstraction levels that allow you to separate the logic of low-level hardware initialization from the platform components responsible for setting up, updating the firmware, security and operating system boot. A draft version of the specification and implementation of typical architecture of the USF posted on github.
USF has a modular structure that is not affected by specific solutions and allowing the use of various existing projects that implement the equipment initialization stages and downloads, such as the UEFI stack of tianocore EDK2 , minimalist Slim Bootloader firmware, loader u-boot and platform Coreboot . As a payload environment, used to search for bootloader and transmitting the operating system, can be used UEFI interface, LinuxBoot interface ( For direct download Linux kernel), VaultBoot (verified load) and ACRN hypervisor. System interfaces such as ACPI, UEFI, KEXEC and MULTI-BOOT are provided for operating systems.
USF highlights a separate layer to support equipment ( FSP , Firmware Support Package), which interacts with universal and customizable Platform orchestration layer (POL, Platform Orchestration Layer) through a general API. FSP abstracts operations such as CPU reset, equipment initialization, work with SMM (System Management Mode), authentication and verification at the SOC level. The orchestration layer simplifies the creation of ACPI interfaces, supports typical loader libraries, allows you to use the RUST language to create protected firmware components and allows A> Using the markup language Yaml . At the POL level also runs Certification (confirmation of authenticity), authentication and organization of secure installation updates.
