Intel Prepares Seamless Updating of Firmware Without a Need for Reboot

[AleksandarK]

Intel has been working on a technology that will improve the lives of all users that have an Intel-based processor in their system. According to the recent round of patches for the Linux kernel, Intel's engineers have been working on a feature called Intel Seamless Update, which promises to bring updating of system firmware without a need to reboot. First of all, it is important to note that firmware upgrades have been stuck at requiring reboot in order to apply patches. This has caused many systems to be down and to slow down the infrastructure by a wide margin, as these updates can last up to several minutes, where the system is rebooting and can not be used.

Intel has presented an idea of creating a technology that will update system firmware, such as UEFI, in the run time. That means that the system will be able to apply firmware patches, without ever needing a reboot, minimizing downtime. This is especially valuable for customers with very high service level agreements (SLAs) around downtime, meaning that almost 100% uptime (not possible to be 100% generally speaking) is required for these systems. An example of this would be medical server infrastructure, which has to constantly be available for access. Using this technology, systems such as these could update their firmware and be online non-stop, without maybe ever needing to reboot. The said feature is supposed to arrive in time for the launch alongside Intel "Sapphire Rapids" Xeon processors.


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[TheGuruStud]

But does it actually take effect without reboot...

 

[Vayra86]

But does it actually take effect without reboot...

I think that's the point.

 

[ZoneDymo]

that is pretty cool honestly and smart of Intel to develop.
I dont think they have anything to beat AMD performance-wise any time soon, but providing important improvements like this might just make them the obvious choice for certain companies.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Very good for big servers

 

[Aquinus]

Very good for big servers

I'd put this right up there with live kernel patching.

 

[Selaya]

new critical vulns in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

 

[zlobby]

new critical vulns in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

Yes. IDK why people cheer these kinds of things? It's the same when Windows can now update your UEFI via 'capsules'. No, I don't want my OS to have a write-enabled interface to the entire EEPROM area!

 

[R0H1T]

How about idiot/power (loss) proof firmware updates?

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Whether you want the update or not ware

 

[P4-630]

How it works:

https://uefi.org/sites/default/files/resources/Intel_MM_OS_Interface_Spec_Rev100.pdf

 

[chodaboy19]

What about the security aspect of all this? They should detail that first?

 

[zlobby]

How about idiot/power (loss) proof firmware updates?

Many consumer-grade mobos have a firmware recovery options in various forms. I know it's not exactly the same but it more or less comes to the same end.

What about the security aspect of all this? They should detail that first?

Intel and security? Where have you been the last couple of decades?

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

new critical vulns in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

Sigh, exactly Can you imagine , apple recently patched a zero day, zero click vulnerability.

 

[zlobby]

Sigh, exactly Can you imagine , apple recently patched a zero day, zero click vulnerability.

I'm not afraid by the ones patched.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

I'm not afraid by the ones patched.

I'm not afraid of the one's we know about?!.

 

[zlobby]

View attachment AlarmedFlusteredHamadryas.webp

Ah, can I embedd .webp or a .jif?

I'm not afraid of the one's we know about?!.

Anyway, that was in the post above

 

[Bomby569]

It seems like such a small thing but this is really important in some contexts. Nice.