The BIOS and its successor EFI are considered by many to be the
final frontier for open source software in commodity PCs. This talk
describes the BIOS replacement coreboot and the projects surrounding
it.
The closed nature of traditional firmware is starting to cause
concern even on the government level, as awareness for BIOS malware
risks is increasing.
The presentation describes coreboot, supplementary tools such as
buildrom, flashrom, superiotool and nvramtool, and some popular
payloads that combine with coreboot to make up the firmware: FILO,
EtherBoot, SeaBIOS, Memtest86, tint, Linux, coreinfo, bayou and
libpayload featuring tinycurses, which can turn simple applications
into instant-on appliances. Finally there will be a demonstration of
coreboot running on hardware.
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 Peter is a self-employed consultant with many years of experience in
software, hardware, security, networking, databases and more. An
early hacker, he was taking electrical apparatus apart at the age of
4 and he actually put one or two back together too! He started
programming at 9 and got his first soldering iron for his 10th
birthday after collecting LEDs for a year.
Some of the open source projects Peter is following and contributing
to are coreboot, flashrom, OpenSSH portable, libusb and libssh2. His
interests include integration, security, usability, efficiency,
automation, networking, cars, RC models, electronics, electronic
music, tasty food and watching great movies.
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