At the recent OCP Regional Summit in Prague, AMD announced plans to replace AMD Generic Encapsulated Software Architecture (AGESA) firmware with an open-source alternative called Open-Source Silicon Initialization Library (openSIL). The new firmware will be ready for production in 2026 after a multi-year four-step development cycle.
Firmware is a critical component of modern computer systems, and in modern AMD systems that critical code blob is AGESA. In particular, AGESA is responsible for initializing several subsystems of the platform, such as processor cores, chipsets, and memory. It is also updated frequently to support new hardware and fix bugs.
But for all the utility that firmware brings, it can also be the weak point of your system, as it is vulnerable to cyberattacks. So, as part of the new firmware initiative, AMD proposed to open source the silicon initialization firmware development, architecture, and verification for enhanced security. AMD has a history of supporting open source software and driver solutions, and openSIL is designed to be lightweight, simple, transparent, secure, and easily scalable.
As first reported by phonics, openSIL is not intended to replace the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), but to integrate with other host firmware such as coreboot, reboot, FortiBIOS. Written in a standard industry language, it allows vendors to statically link it into their host firmware, bypassing host firmware protocols.
AMD is currently testing openSIL in the proof of concept (POC) phase and is currently compatible with AMD’s 4th generation EPYC (Genoa) processors and related platforms. 5th Gen EPYC (Turin) processors will also be included in his POC phase. AMD plans to make openSIL the default choice for its 6th Gen EPYC series by 2026, phasing out AGESA.
Image Credits: AMD
AMD acknowledges that openSIL is still a work in progress, but is roughly equivalent to AGESA. However, openSIL won’t be ready until 2026 and AMD’s latest roadmap points to Zen 5 in 2024, so it could be up to Zen 6 or Zen 7 to see the finished product.AMD has not released a projected roadmap for openSIL on the client side, but will eventually replace AGESA in all AMD products.
