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Can you elaborate on how the x86_64 world has gotten more locked down?
by witty_username 10y ago
Can you elaborate on how the x86_64 world has gotten more locked down?
- protomyth 10y agoThe biggest example is Intel and their taking away of ability to do custom chipsets for their chips. That move torpedoed NVIDIA's Ion. If you want custom, then you go ARM.
- bnolsen 10y agoonboard trusted execution engine running God knows what.
- sevensor 10y agoThe first two responses are right on the money -- "trusted" modules, locked-down chipsets, can't write or use open firmware. This is why we get so excited when a random ThinkPad model might have a firmware bug that allows us to bypass the TMM.
- oneplane 10y agoThere as so many blobs and secret controllers in the x86 platform it's not even funny. Since Core 2 Duo there is basically no way to run a CPU+PCH (or 'chipset') with free software. An average x86 PC has 10 'hidden' controllers doing all sorts of magic, and you can't touch it. The Intel Management Engine and Boot Guard make it extremely hard to use the chips without Intel's approval, NDA and a truckload of money. Here are some pages with details: https://www.coreboot.org/Binary_situation https://www.coreboot.org/Binary_situation https://www.coreboot.org/Intel_Management_Engine https://www.coreboot.org/Intel_Management_Engine https://www.coreboot.org/Blob_Matrix https://www.coreboot.org/Blob_Matrix Intel also made it so that a PC has a timer that turns it off after 30 minutes if you don't run their signed firmware.