Open-source and Independent Firmware Vendors (IFVs) are not words you usually see together in the same sentence. However, AMI – one of the proud sponsors of the Open Compute Project (OCP) organization – is living proof that firmware vendors can play an active role in the open-source ecosystem and deliver value to themselves and the developer community at large. Accordingly, AMI will be participating in this year’s OCP Regional Summit in Prague featuring a collection of industry demonstrations and technical presentations. Let’s take a closer look at what AMI is doing in partnership with AMD to demonstrate the integration of AMI Aptio OpenEdition (open-source UEFI boot solution) with AMD’s Open-Source Silicon Initialization Library (AMD openSIL).

What is AMI showcasing at OCP Regional Summit 2023?

AMI is partnering with AMD and its other open-source partners to highlight the UEFI and coreboot boot flow of AMD’s 4th Gen EPYC™based platform using AMI Aptio OpenEdition (OE) and coreboot. Aptio OE, AMI’s OCP-approved, open-source UEFI firmware offering, provides a wide range of features and utilities for host boot firmware development, debugging, testing, and deployment. This UEFI stack provides a modular architecture that allows developers to create custom firmware modules with support for a variety of interfaces and protocols such as PCIe, USB, IPMI, and Ethernet. This demo will showcase an EDK II-based, UEFI boot firmware solution integrating with AMD openSIL to power a system to Linux and Windows OS. In addition to this, AMI will also perform a Linux boot demonstration integrating coreboot and AMD openSIL solution for the same platform.

What is AMD openSIL?

AMD openSIL is an open-source software library that provides a standard interface for initializing and configuring silicon IP blocks on AMD-based platforms at scale. It provides a library of APIs for a wide range of agnostic host firmware solutions – UEFI, coreboot, oreboot, etc. – and hardware IPs – processors, controllers, interfaces, etc. – that integrate with complex compute system designs such as System-on-Chips (SoCs), System-on-Modules (SoMs), as well as client, embedded, and server platforms.

Why should you care about this demo?

AMD’s industry standardization strategy and vendor-agnostic silicon initialization architecture will grant the developer community flexibility and transparency when deciding their host firmware solution. Developers are now able to scale using robust, feature-rich UEFI boot firmware offerings such as AMI’s Aptio V or Aptio OpenEdition; or lighter, non-UEFI options such as slimboot, coreboot, oreboot, and the like. Furthermore, the availability of the source code in open-source repositories will allow developers to leverage the libraries to fit their platform design needs. Lastly, AMD’s bold stance in open sourcing these libraries should improve developers’ ability to thoroughly test their platform firmware for functionality and security.

Join us at the Demo Booth!

Customers, open-source developers, and technology enthusiasts are encouraged to view these and other AMI demos at the OCP Regional Summit in the AMI Booth (A15), on April 19-20, 2023. Stop by and engage with members of AMD and AMI for further discussions.

See you there!