Project Mu

2018: Announcement

In December, 2018 the Microsoft company announced the new project open source of Project Mu which is directed to promoting of a firmware of UEFI  instead of outdated  BIOS.

UEFI in comparison with BIOS represents more new solution, it supports hard drives of bigger volume, is quicker loaded, is safer and that is very convenient, has the graphical interface and supports a mouse.

UEFI is used mainly in products of Microsoft, including in Surface series computers. With Project Mu exit the company calculates that this firmware will be involved by all PC makers.

System interface of Project Mu

Development of the idea of a firmware as service (FaaS, Firmware as a Service) which essence in providing mechanisms for maintenance of an UEFI environment and firmwares in current status became key feature of the new project. FaaS allows to consider firmwares as the product requiring permanent updating for operational bringing to users of error corrections and vulnerabilities and also for adding of new functionality.

Project Mu includes functions of increase in security due to removal of the outdated or irrelevant code (so-called reduction of field of the attacks), support of high-performance loading, the modern BIOS menu, safe management of the UEFI settings, a test set and tools for the analysis and optimization of UEFI. The screen keyboard is also provided.^[1]

Project Mu is positioned as open building block system for creation of UEFI firmwares not only for desktops and notebooks, but also for servers, the IoT-equipment and other computing devices. Thanks to openness of the project of Microsoft solves a set of legal problems as in case of the proprietary status software often it is necessary to sign different agreements. 

Documentation and annual base Project Mu is available in GitHub service.^[2]

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