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In embedded systems, a board support package (BSP) is the layer of software containing hardware-specific boot firmware, runtime firmware and device drivers and other routines that allow a given embedded operating system, for example a real-time operating system (RTOS), to function in a given hardware environment (a motherboard), integrated with the embedded operating system.
Intel Active Management Technology (AMT) is hardware-based technology built into PCs with Intel vPro technology.AMT is designed to help sys-admins remotely manage and secure PCs out-of-band when PC power is off, the operating system (OS) is unavailable (hung, crashed, corrupted, missing), software management agents are missing, or hardware (such as a hard disk drive or memory) has failed.
The processor must be in protection ring zero ("Ring 0") in order to initiate a microcode update. [21]: 1 Each CPU in a symmetric multiprocessing arrangement needs to be updated individually. [21]: 1 An update is initiated by placing its address in eax register, setting ecx = 0x79, and executing a wrmsr (Write model-specific register).
The Intel Management Engine (ME), also known as the Intel Manageability Engine, [1] [2] is an autonomous subsystem that has been incorporated in virtually all of Intel's processor chipsets since 2008. [1] [3] [4] It is located in the Platform Controller Hub of modern Intel motherboards.
SCI from the Embedded Controller to inform the ACPI driver (in the OS) of an ACPI Event; As a core system component, the embedded controller is always on when power is supplied to the mainboard. To communicate with the main computer system, several forms of communication can be used, including ACPI, SMBus, or shared memory.
The BIOS versions in earlier PCs (XT-class) were not software configurable; instead, users set the options via DIP switches on the motherboard. Later computers, including most IBM-compatibles with 80286 CPUs, had a battery-backed nonvolatile BIOS memory (CMOS RAM chip) that held BIOS settings. [ 48 ]
coreboot, formerly known as LinuxBIOS, [5] is a software project aimed at replacing proprietary firmware (BIOS or UEFI) found in most computers with a lightweight firmware designed to perform only the minimum number of tasks necessary to load and run a modern 32-bit or 64-bit operating system.
The software is highly dependent on the CPU and specific chips chosen. Most embedded software engineers have at least a passing knowledge of reading schematics, and reading data sheets for components to determine usage of registers and communication system. Conversion between decimal, hexadecimal and binary is useful as well as using bit ...