AMD’s AGESA firmware to be replaced by openSIL

At a regional OCP (Open Compute Project) summit hosted in Prague,

AMD shared its plans to replace its AMD Generic Encapsulated Software Architecture (AGESA) firmware with an open source Silicon Initialization Library (openSIL). For contemporary computer systems, firmware is an essential component, and for contemporary AMD systems, that crucial code blob is AGESA. The platform’s CPU cores, chipset, and memory are among the subsystems that AGESA is in charge of initialising. It is frequently updated to support new hardware and fix faults.

But despite all the benefits that firmware offers, a system’s vulnerability to cyber attacks can make it a weak point. In order to increase security, AMD has suggested making the design, architecture, and validation of the Silicon Initialization Firmware open source as part of its new firmware program. OpenSIL is intended to be light, transparent, simple, safe, and scalable. The fourth-generation AMD EPYC (Genoa) processors and associated platforms are currently compatible with openSIL, which AMD is testing in the Proof-of-Concept (POC) stage. The fifth-generation EPYC (Turin) CPUs will also be used in this stage. By 2026, AMD plans to phase out AGESA and make openSIL the standard option for the sixthgeneration EPYC series.

AMD acknowledges that openSIL is still a work-in-progress but that it is already quite competitive with AGESA. It might not be available until Zen 6 or even Zen 7 because openSIL won’t be ready until 2026, and AMD’s most current roadmap lists Zen 5 for 2024. On the client side, AMD has not yet provided a roadmap; however AGESA will eventually be replaced by openSIL on all AMD devices.