Sustainable Systems: The Role of Open Firmware in Hardware Lifecycle Extension

Explore how open system firmware advances sustainability goals and extends hardware lifecycles in this 12-minute conference talk from Christian Walter, Head of Firmware Development at 9Elements Gmbh. Learn about the Open Compute Project's commitment to hardware circularity and how traditional proprietary firmware's premature end-of-life limitations lead to functional hardware underutilization. Discover the advantages of open firmware solutions like coreboot and openBMC, including their transparency, adaptability, and ongoing support capabilities. Examine the OCP's Tioga Pass server as a case study demonstrating how open firmware enables extended hardware usage and supports the vision of a sustainable, circular hardware economy.