5 ms·
Recent (1-2 years?) AMD BIOS supports disabling the Platform Security Processor (their ME equivalent). I haven't been able to figure out what exactly this mean
by boring_twenties 6y ago
Recent (1-2 years?) AMD BIOS supports disabling the Platform Security Processor (their ME equivalent).
I haven't been able to figure out what exactly this means, but it does seem to be disabled after system initialization. Kind of like Intel's HAP bit, except user-settable.
- floatboth 6y agoEither like the HAP bit, or less — only disabling its visibility to the OS on the PCIe bus.
- boring_twenties 6y agoYeah, I'm a little confused as to why they'd bother implementing and deploying this feature without even a cursory explanation of what it does...
- numpad0 6y agoMaybe it’s literally classified
- LargoLasskhyfv 6y agoI found [1] https://www.igorslab.de/en/inside-amd-bios-what-is-really-hidden-behind-agesa-the-psp-platform-security-processor-and-the-numbers-of-combo-pi/ https://www.igorslab.de/en/inside-amd-bios-what-is-really-hi... to be a good explanation. Essentially it's the crank which brings up the rest of the SOC. The other functions are optional, but no booting possible without it.
- boring_twenties 6y agoThanks for that! This is quite relevant to me right now as I'm thinking about my next upgrade. Obviously, I'd prefer to buy AMD, especially if this disable switch is legit. But grotesquely, I'm still considering going with Intel, because at least I know I can use me_cleaner there, and more or less understand exactly what it does. Hopefully this document will clear some of that up.