Intel to scrap UEFI BIOS compatibility in 2020

Intel will remove support for the traditional bios for its products in 2020. From that moment on, all Intel platforms only support uefi class 3 and booting via the Compatibility Support Module is no longer possible.

Intel is removing the last mile barrier to get rid of traditional BIOS, says Brian Richardson, developer evangelist at Intel. He recently gave a presentation on the subject at the Uefi Plugfest in Taiwan. According to Richardson, the compatibility is still there because people are still using software that relies on 16bit BIOS and there are people who want to bypass secure boot or set up multi-OS booting.

According to the Intel evangelist, the benefit of removing bios support is that it reduces the size of the uefi code, makes validation easier as it is no longer needed for the modes with csm on and off, thus reducing the use of new technology is encouraged.

Although from 2020 uefi class 3 will become standard with Intel products and not ‘class 3+’ with secure boot enabled, Intel does point to the security benefits of this technology. Intel is calling on manufacturers to improve the validation of tools with secure boot enabled, so that users no longer have to fall back on the Compatibility Support Module for, for example, recovery problems. Secure boot was and is much criticized, especially from the open source community. If secure boot is enabled, it will make it more difficult to install Linux on systems.