China Introduces UBIOS: The First Independent Firmware Standard Set to Replace UEFI

The launch of UBIOS marks a significant advancement in firmware architecture, representing a move toward a self-sufficient ecosystem tailored for heterogeneous systems.

GCC Introduces UBIOS: A New Era of Firmware Independence

China has made substantial progress in its mission to reduce reliance on foreign technologies, culminating in the introduction of a brand-new firmware framework. The Global Computing Consortium (GCC) recently unveiled the “Unified Basic Input Output System”(UBIOS), alongside the standard identification code T/GCC 3007-2025. This initiative aims to foster software-hardware co-design and support a distributed architecture.

T/GCC 3007—2025 standard document titled Unified Basic Input/Output System (UBIOS) Base Architecture Specification. — Image Credit: mydrivers.com

Historically, China, like much of the global market, has relied heavily on UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface), which has roots in the legacy BIOS developed predominantly by Intel and Microsoft. With the introduction of UBIOS, China marks a pivotal moment by establishing its first fully standardized and scalable domestic firmware, significantly decreasing its dependence on UEFI.

The development of UBIOS was spearheaded by a committee from the GCC that comprised 13 prominent Chinese tech companies and research institutions, including the China Electronics Standardization Institute and Huawei Technologies. This concerted effort is noteworthy, especially considering the dominance of UEFI in x86 platforms over the past two decades, which has extended its reach to ARM servers, PCs, and RISC-V architectures. Despite its widespread adoption, UEFI has been criticized for issues like bloated code and inefficiencies, resulting in a less-than-optimal experience for heterogeneous computing environments.

T/GCC 3007—2025 document with text about standardization guidelines and company affiliations. — Image Credit: mydrivers.com

The underlying structure of UEFI heavily depends on Intel and Microsoft frameworks. Its device discovery and OS loading processes are closely tied to the x86 architecture and ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) tables. Although attempts have been made to incorporate ARM, RISC-V, and China’s LoongArch architectures, the adaptations have been somewhat cumbersome. In contrast, UBIOS has been meticulously designed from the ground up, offering enhanced support for native heterogeneous computing, streamlined hardware management, and full scalability for future chip innovations.

Ultimately, the introduction of UBIOS signifies a critical step toward achieving complete autonomy in China’s computing infrastructure. This homegrown firmware solution will not only minimize the country’s reliance on foreign standards but also eliminate a significant bottleneck hindering its technological sovereignty.

For more details, see the original announcement on My Drivers.

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