Arm SystemReady for Client Devices

Owned by Niyas Sait (Deactivated)
Jul 07, 2022
2 min read

Arm SystemReady is a compliance program designed to ensure system software like OS, Hypervisor, etc. work out of the box on Arm-based platforms. SystemReady defines a set of hardware requirements and firmware standards.

Arm SystemReady defines a few bands targeting different market segments.

SystemReady does not have any client device (e.g: laptop) specific standard yet. SystemReady SR might be the closest one to follow for client devices.

Check out Arm’s blog for more details.

https://community.arm.com/arm-community-blogs/b/architectures-and-processors-blog/posts/progress-in-arm-system-ready-program

Specifications for Arm SystemReady SR

Arm SystemReady SR is based on the following specifications:

  • Base System Architecture (BSA) and Server Base System Architecture (SBSA)

  • Server Base Boot Requirement (SBBR)

  • Base Boot Security Requirements (BBSR)

Base System Architecture (BSA) and Server Base System Architecture (SBSA)

BSA defines the minimum set of hardware requirements for an operating system to boot successfully and SBSA adds a few more specific hardware requirements for the server or workstation segment.

The specification mandates a few hardware requirements

  • Processor

  • Memory features

  • GIC (Interrupt Controller)

  • SMMU

  • UART

  • Watchdog

  • SMMU

  • PCIe

  • Common I/O peripherals like USB/SATA

SBSA defines a few levels based on the hardware capabilities.

Arm BSA document references a client base architecture specification as well but no documents seem to be publically available yet.

Please check out the following links for specification

BSA: https://developer.arm.com/documentation/den0094/latest

SBSA: https://developer.arm.com/documentation/den0029/latest/

Server Base Boot Requirement

BBR specifies the requirements for boot and runtime services that system software, like operating systems and hypervisors, can rely on. It is based on the following standards

  • UEFI

  • ACPI

  • SMBIOS

  • PSCI/SMCCC

https://developer.arm.com/documentation/den0044/latest

Base Boot Security Requirements

Base Boot Security Requirements specify standard security interfaces that operating systems can rely on. These interfaces include the following security-related functionality:

• UEFI authenticated variables
• UEFI secure boot
• UEFI secure firmware update using Update Capsules
• TPMs and measured boot

https://developer.arm.com/documentation/den0107/latest

SystemReady Validation

Arm provides Architecture Compliance Suite (ACS) for SystemReady Validation.

ACS comprises multiple test suites to test hardware and firmware requirements

SBSA hardware requirements

  • CPU properties

  • System components

  • PCIe integration ( Based on the PCIe specification)

  • Based on standard OS drivers with no quirks enabled

SBBR defined firmware requirements

  • UEFI testing that is based on the UEFI Self-Certification Test (SCT)

  • ACPI and SMBIOS testing that is based on Firmware Test Suite (FWTS)