A Balanced Approach to Standards
Arm SystemReady builds on the successful Arm ServerReady compliance program, enabling an out-of-the-box experience for servers, expanding the concept to a broader set of devices. The program provides a balanced approach to standards; too much standardization could restrict partner innovation and too little results in high software maintenance costs for supporting fragmented products.
SystemReady benefits include:
- Accelerating and expanding the enablement of software and hardware developer ecosystems by allowing generic off-the-shelf operating systems and workloads to work seamlessly across Arm-based platforms.
- Standardization across an array of different devices and systems demonstrates that Arm-based devices provide a stable base and choice of systems for any sector.
- Building and complying to a set of standards instills confidence that operating systems and application software just works on SystemReady platforms, so developers can focus on innovation and value-add for their products.
- Simplified and faster time to market for our partners.
- Easily identified advantage for Arm-based devices with the ‘SystemReady certified’ stamp.
- Supports the easy deployment and maintenance of standard firmware interfaces thus reducing the cost of maintaining multiple software platforms.
- Reduces the cost associated with adopting a new platform by eliminating custom engineering of firmware
SystemReady Bands
Arm SystemReady applies to a broad set of devices initially in the datacenter server, edge and high-performance IoT ecosystems. One of the key benefits across all SystemReady bands is to ensure the easy deployment and maintenance of standard firmware interfaces, thus reducing the cost of supporting multiple software platforms.
We currently have four bands listed below with links to find out more.
SystemReady SR
"Just Works" on server or workstation Arm SoCs
- For the Windows, VMware, Linux, and BSD ecosystem
- Supports old OSes to run on new hardware and vice versa
- Targets generic off-the-shelf OSes
SystemReady ES
"Just Works" on embedded and SmartNIC Arm SoCs
- For the Windows, VMware, Linux, and BSD ecosystem
- Supports old OSes to run on new hardware and vice versa
- Targets generic off-the-shelf OSes
SystemReady IR
"Just Works" for Linux and BSD on embedded Arm SoCs
- For the embedded Linux ecosystem
- Mainline Linux support for SoC
- Targets both custom (Yocto, OpenWRT, buildroot) and pre-build (Debian, Fedora, SUSE, Ubuntu)
SystemReady LS
"Just Works" for Linux OSes on server Arm SoCs
- For hyperscalers
- Targets hyperscalers’ Linux environment
Pre-Silicon Compliance Testing
SystemReady Pre-Silicon is an enablement program that helps silicon vendors achieve BSA compliance prior to taping out, in a well-defined and low risk path to SystemReady. It provides tools (such as the pre-silicon BSA/SBSA compliance tests), and, above all, a framework with specific steps for silicon vendors to take to be BSA compliant.
Silicon vendors need to consider BSA compliance throughout all pre-silicon phases of the development of a System-on-chip (SoC) that is to be SystemReady – after all, BSA defines a system architecture and compliance needs to be achieved in hardware (silicon).
For silicon SoC manufacturers, each production run of a chip is costly. Pre-silicon compliance allows testing SoC designs before tape-out, to reduce cost and risk for our silicon partners.
SystemReady pre-silicon compliance benefits:
- Provides BSA compliance before tape-out
- Prevents costly silicon respins and software workarounds
- Enables a well-defined and low-risk path to SystemReady
Arm SystemReady pre-silicon compliance testing, based on the BSA specification and supplements like SBSA, is available for silicon partners and Arm is working closely with Electronic Design Automation (EDA) partners on developing tools for this.
EDA partners:
SystemReady Security Interface Extension
The Arm SystemReady security interface extension provides a way to certify that UEFI secure boot, secure firmware update, and TPM interfaces are implemented, as prescribed by the Arm Base Boot Security Requirements (BBSR) specification. The security extension can be followed with the SystemReady SR, ES, and IR bands.
An Architectural Compliance Suite (ACS) is available to verify the compliance of a firmware implementation to BBSR.
To assess the security robustness of architecture implementations in edge and IoT chips, system software, and devices, the PSA Certified program can be followed separately.
SystemReady Virtual Environment (VE)
Arm SystemReady Virtual Environment (VE) is an optional certification in the Arm SystemReady program. It is designed for the certification of virtual environments such as cloud instances or virtual platforms. Virtual environments that are certified with the SystemReady VE can demonstrate the same software “just works” user experience as other SystemReady bands.
Robust Standards for Cloud-Native Software with Project Cassini
Project Cassini is an open, collaborative, standards-based initiative to deliver a secure and seamless cloud-native software experience across the edge ecosystem. Project Cassini consists of three components:
- Robust standards
- Security APIs and microservices
- Reference implementations
SystemReady ES and IR bands establish one of the three pillars of Project Cassini, providing robust standards for the edge ecosystem.
