{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"WaveSession","title":"Why Firmware Is Going Open Source, Fast","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3692,"description":"What actually happens between the moment a server powers on and the instant your operating system boots?\n\nIn this episode of WaveSession #3, Chris Walter, co-founder of firmware engineering firm 9Elements and founder of the Open Source Firmware Foundation, pulls back the curtain on BIOS, BMC, and root-of-trust firmware, and explains why the once-closed, NDA-locked firmware industry is rapidly going open source.\n\nChris walks through his unconventional path into firmware, starting with a master's thesis attempting to brute-force a cryptographic algorithm using FPGA clusters, and evolving through side-channel attacks, hardware security auditing, and embedded sensor development before landing in BIOS, BMC, and root-of-trust engineering. That security-first background shapes his central thesis: firmware is the invisible foundation underneath every claim a system makes about being secure. If the boot chain is compromised, everything built on top of it, confidential computing, secure enclaves, container isolation, falls apart with it.\n\nThe conversation gets into why hyperscalers like Meta and Google, followed by mid-sized on-prem operators, are driving the shift from proprietary firmware toward open standards. Custom silicon, multi-host server designs, faster time-to-OS, and the ability to patch security vulnerabilities on your own timeline are pushing companies to demand transparency and unified firmware stacks instead of juggling incompatible vendor blobs. Chris and Ilya trace the parallels to past industry inflection points, the rise of Linux, software-defined networking, and software-defined radio, arguing that firmware is hitting its own tipping point now, compressed into years instead of decades.\n\nEfficiency and AI take over the back half of the conversation. Chris explains how open BMC access already lets operators fine-tune fan curves and power draw at scale, and why firmware's deterministic, well-documented nature makes it surprisingly well-suited to...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/iT6kpU_bJJQtiCbVkERrhh_oqclwhiP-thFneGN6ar4/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8yODc4/MjQwNmQyODM3Nzg2/YjU1Y2ZlNjA0Yzhl/Yjg5MS5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}