Re:Intel Microcode Decryptor
by LargoLasskhyfv on Wednesday July 20, 2022 @06:09AM
(#32163588)
On X86/AMD64 there is also ACPI and SMM (System Management Mode), which overlap in parts. ACPI calls into code provided by whichever bootloader, running post-boot above to operating system, or behind its back, so to speak. It's complicated.
Mostly for dynamic powermanagement and voltage regulation, monitoring temperatures, hotplugging, etc. That's just the way it is (now).
I remember when this first made the rounds over a decade ago with some mainboards from CENSORED Apple supplier which were pretty usable, except when running under something else than Microsoft Windows. IIRC it wasn't malice, only
implemented in a way which made this hard to interface with from Linux, or the likes. Of course undocumented. Later, but about the same timeframe the first so called open source/security 'zealots' damning ACPI in general for those reasons.
It may be called differently on other platforms, but similar/equivalent mechanisms exist on almost everthing which is not in a museeum or landfill.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Management_Mode
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Configuration_and_Pow...
Mostly for dynamic powermanagement and voltage regulation, monitoring temperatures, hotplugging, etc. That's just the way it is (now).
I remember when this first made the rounds over a decade ago with some mainboards from CENSORED Apple supplier which were pretty usable, except when running under something else than Microsoft Windows. IIRC it wasn't malice, only implemented in a way which made this hard to interface with from Linux, or the likes. Of course undocumented. Later, but about the same timeframe the first so called open source/security 'zealots' damning ACPI in general for those reasons.
It may be called differently on other platforms, but similar/equivalent mechanisms exist on almost everthing which is not in a museeum or landfill.