[coreboot] [RFC] Statement regarding AMD’s new architecture Zen

[Paul Menzel]

Dear coreboot folks,


AMD presented the new processor architecture *Zen* [1], which – from
the published reports – looks quite promising to be competitive to
Intel once again.

No devices are sold yet, but I guess they are already worked on.
(Hopefully, there will be also Google Chromebooks and Chromeboxes.)

Should the coreboot community publish a statement, asking AMD to make
it possible to fully initialize these devices with free software? Is
there somebody good in English writing, and knowledgeable of the
current state, able to draft something up?

For example, will there still be a Platform Security Processor (PSP)
[2], and SMU (System(?) Management Unit) [3]?

What does the statement need to contain?

1. Request for free documentation for all parts (chipset (RAM) init,
PSP, SMU, …)
2. User controllable signing keys
3. Reference to Intel’s involvement to coreboot

Nice to have:

4. Code contributions from AMD

What else is missing?

(I am well aware, that such a statement has a small chance to change
anything. But better try than not.)


Thanks,

Paul


[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_%28microarchitecture%29
[2] https://www.coreboot.org/Binary_situation#recent_AMD
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