UEFI News and Commentary

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Chinese UEFI BIOS

According to this official announcement (http://www.mii.gov.cn/art/2005/12/17/art_80_1697.html) the Chinese government has started a "secure" BIOS project, apparently based on UEFI. This (computer generated) translation shows the charter of creating a "New generation of security BIOS research and development and industrial production" is given to "Software Engineering Center - Chinese Academy of Sciences", "China Electronic Technology Group Corporation" and "Chinese System Technology Limited company" A little more digging reveals that (http://www.njswp.com/html/life_detail.php?sid=52): On May 16, a few of Intel's UEFI gurus (Mark Doran, UEFI's secretary, Lu Ju, head of a group which does UEFI development in Shanghai) visited one of these companies Software Engineering Center Chinese Academy of Sciences http://www.sec.ac.cn/, which is located in Nanjing. Coincidently, this is very near the building which used to belong to Phoenix and I've visited several times myself (even staying in the apartments across the street). The fourth gentleman from the right in the picture (Kangkang Shen) is an ex-Phoenix employee who I've worked with several times. The building in the picture isn't the same as Phoenix's but looks like the one next door. Looks like the Chinese government hopes to use UEFI...

Monday, July 24, 2006

AMD & ATI & UEFI

As Reuter's mentioned here: http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/060724/ati.html?.v=7, AMD has announced the purchase of ATI. So, what does this mean for UEFI? Well, AMD is a board member and ATI is a contributor, so it bumps of ATI's ability to influence overall UEFI policy. Hopefully, it means that ATI will also agressively push the PI and UEFI silicon model for its firmware deliveries. It will be interesting to watch how the ATI chipset architects will be represented in the new AMD corporate structure, and thus in the UEFI meetings. Tim