A Milestone for Open-Source Firmware on AM5

Firmware specialist 3mdeb has marked a significant milestone by releasing the first open-source UEFI firmware solution for AMD's AM5 platform. Dubbed Dasharo v0.9.0, this release provides foundational support for Zen 4 Phoenix APUs and is specifically tailored for the MSI Pro B850-P WiFi motherboard. The project leverages Coreboot alongside AMD's modern open-source framework, openSIL.


Technical Specifications and Features

The release includes a robust set of 19 distinct features designed to ensure seamless operation on the B850 hardware. Key highlights include:

  • Support for UEFI Secure Boot and fTPM.
  • Enhanced boot optimization, including fast and quiet boot modes.
  • Advanced system monitoring, such as AMD CPU temperature reporting.
  • Compatibility with UEFI boot interfaces and EFI system partition scanning.
  • Integrated Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) for improved transparency.

Development Context and Evolution

The path to this release has been a multi-month engineering effort. Following their previous success in creating open-source firmware for the Gigabyte MZ33-AR1 server board—which supports AMD EPYC 9005 series processors—3mdeb utilized the architectural lessons from that project to bring open-source capabilities to the consumer-grade MSI Pro B850-P.

While AMD is planning a transition from AGESA to openSIL beginning with the Zen 6 architecture, the team at 3mdeb has proactively ported this framework to current Ryzen-based hardware.


Security and Performance Advantages

The shift toward open-source firmware is widely regarded as a major improvement over traditional closed-source alternatives like AGESA. According to industry experts, openSIL offers several advantages:

«The open-source nature of this firmware allows for greater scrutiny by the global developer community, leading to more effective vulnerability tracking and significantly enhanced platform security.»

Beyond security, the integration with Coreboot provides users with optimized code that can lead to faster boot times compared to standard proprietary firmware solutions. Furthermore, openSIL is designed for high interoperability, supporting various firmware stacks beyond UEFI, including Project µ, oreboot, and FortiBIOS.

Interested users can access the new firmware via the 3mdeb official store as part of the MSI Pro B850-P hardware-firmware bundle.