Intel Corporation

Atanas K Iwanow

Martin Guy Dixon

Vasudevan Srinivasan

Scott P Bobholz

Chinmay Ashok

David T Mayo

Scott J Cape

Lorie Wigle

Jason Kennedy

Vinila Rose

Methods and apparatus for restricted deployment of targeted processor firmware updates. During a patch enabling per-work flow, service entitlement license information comprising one of more service entitlements is generated and provisioned on one or more computing platforms. A restricted deployment microcode (uCode) update release (aka uCode patch) targeted for platforms having CPUs and/or XPUs with certain part identifier is sent to the one or more platforms. Run-time software and/or firmware on the platforms are executed to access the provisioned service entitlement license information, which is used to authentic and verify the restricted deployment uCode update release using a service entitlement having a part identifier associated with the platform's CPU. In one solution, authentication is performed using a hash-matching scheme and verification is used to verify the platform is properly licensed to load uCode included in the restricted deployment microcode (uCode) update release into the CPU.

Techniques for restricted deployment of targeted processor firmware updates

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Hillsboro, OR, United States of America

Atanas K Iwanow