MINIX – The most popular OS in the world, thanks to Intel • Hacker News Board

>> Note to AMD: Now might be a good time to remove similar functionality from your CPU lines to try to win market share from Intel. Better to do so now before Intel removes the “Management Engine.” Strike while the iron’s hot and all that.

I am absolutely certain this comes with backing maybe even pressure from government surveillance bodies. You don't have it - you don't get a contract.

AMD does already follow suit and is not better by any means.

Re: MINIX – The most popular OS in the world, thanks to Intel

#6

Post by d33 » Mon, Nov 06, 2017, 12:20 PM UTC

factorialboy wrote: post #2

Can someone ELI5 why Intel needs an OS in the processor?

Because the implementation of all the complexity within would be much buggier if they tried to pull it all off from scratch. Also, it would be more expensive.

The official application of ME is, well, about managing the hardware. This means it has to work with lots of different components, including coordination of the resources available. When you think of it, that's pretty much the definition of an OS. Instead of writing their own one, they decided to use one of the ones already available.

Re: MINIX – The most popular OS in the world, thanks to Intel

#7

Post by walterbell » Mon, Nov 06, 2017, 12:21 PM UTC

Good news for OpenPower and IBM, where the firmware appears to be open-source, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12168502

Re: MINIX – The most popular OS in the world, thanks to Intel

#8

Post by alex_duf » Mon, Nov 06, 2017, 12:22 PM UTC

lallysingh wrote: post #4

I don't understand why AMD isn't all over this as a product differentiator

Because they probably are required to do the same under whatever legal jurisdiction they fall under.

Re: MINIX – The most popular OS in the world, thanks to Intel

#9

Post by Annatar » Mon, Nov 06, 2017, 12:23 PM UTC

You mean you discovered that fimware is bad? Good! Now search for Bryan Cantrill’s latest video on the torment of debugging closed source firmware...

Re: MINIX – The most popular OS in the world, thanks to Intel

#10

Post by ngneer » Mon, Nov 06, 2017, 12:23 PM UTC

I do not like the post. It seems scant on details and rife with conclusions. The Google presentation linked to has a bit more detail on the underlying technologies. A modern processor is a complex beast, and a security argument can always be made to reduce complexity. Citation needed for espionage and privacy evasion use cases...