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Phoenix's BIOS Roadmap

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the whole-lotta-acronyms dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Phoenix Technologies Ltd. unveiled a vision and roadmap for a next generation of system BIOS firmware that the company calls "core system software" today, at its Strategy 2004 conference. As defined by Phoenix, CSS is a new category of core system firmware that transcends the boundaries of traditional BIOSes and to deliver "extensible firmware that provides the critical foundation of trust, manageability, and connectivity required for networked computing," in a broad range of devices including desktop and laptop PCs, servers, and handhelds gadgets. Specific technologies that Phoenix is integrating into its d-NA CSS firmware include: support for the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) specification, remote diagnostics and error-checking, intelligent configuration checking and integrated system policy management, automated provisioning of servers and server virtualization, "radically enhanced" device power management, embedded TCP/IP, remote management functions including dynamic provisioning, load balancing and software resource control, and an XML and SOAP standards-based interface to CSS functions."

6 of 337 comments (clear)

  1. Thanks but no thanks Phoenix.. by grub · · Score: 5, Interesting


    Trust -- [...] In addition, Phoenix d-NA will incorporate a new class of Windows-advantaged components that leverage the Microsoft CryptoAPI (CAPI) to provide unprecedented trust and intrinsic security for systems running Windows and .NET applications.

    If this crap cannot be disabled then I guess I won't be using Phoenix BIOSes in the future. This whole "trust" nonsense is a thinly veiled attempt at shifting some of the security-onus from the OS to the hardware with the blessing of Microsoft along with the side "benefit" of Digital Rights Management.

    This may start a whole new style of hacking; releasing BIOSes for flashing which have the DRM/Trust shite removed.

    --
    Trolling is a art,
    1. Re:Thanks but no thanks Phoenix.. by dslbrian · · Score: 5, Interesting

      This whole "trust" nonsense is a thinly veiled attempt at shifting some of the security-onus from the OS to the hardware with the blessing of Microsoft along with the side "benefit" of Digital Rights Management.

      I agree with you. This sounds like a lock-in to MS compliant hardware, and forced DRM. I'll cast my vote by giving my money to a different BIOS vendor...

      Interestingly this might give a boost to the open BIOS movement. When MS started locking people in with "authentication" of their OS and office products, there was a discernable jump in the popularity of OpenOffice.

    2. Re:Thanks but no thanks Phoenix.. by vigilology · · Score: 4, Interesting
      This whole "trust" nonsense is a thinly veiled attempt at shifting some of the security-onus from the OS to the hardware with the blessing of Microsoft along with the side "benefit" of Digital Rights Management.

      If this keeps up, the meaning of the word 'trust' is going to change, more so than 'gay' has.

  2. Linux BIOS by cbrese · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Maybe it's time to start helping out/using LinuxBIOS. I went to SCALE over the weekend and saw a interesting presentaion on LinuxBIOS, it has lots of benifits over other commercial BIOS's.

  3. Useless layer of crap. by aardvaark · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is braindead. Introducing a huge layer of complexity between the OS and hardware etc. Really the job of the BIOS should be to do as little as necessary and then hand things off to the OS. Does a BIOS truly need a TCP/IP stack? Perhaps it is time to put a bit more effort in to linuxBIOS.

    --
    If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide. -Ghandi
  4. great, more viruses! by Saint+Stephen · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Most of the viruses lately have been of the email-you-are-dumb variety. I'd been wondering where all the excellent boot sector and hardware level viruses of the 1980s and early 1990s had gotten to.

    I couldn't stand yet-another I-love-you clone. I want some real destruction!