AMD engineers have officially confirmed that the transition to openSIL from AGESA will continue with the launch of Zen 6. Announced back in 2023, openSIL is an improved open-source Coreboot replacement. AMD has been working to introduce openSIL to its Phoenix line of SOCs, and while there have been technical delays, the version 1.0 specification has officially been released along with a schedule of future implementations.
The openSIL name refers to AMD’s x86 Silicon Initialization Library combined with open-source. As exciting as this upcoming update may be, eagle-eyed PC enthusiasts who are chomping at the bit for Zen 6 news were treated with some tidbits hinting at potential release dates during AMD’s presentation in San Jose at the Open Compute Project Global Summit.
AMD’s enterprise 6th GEN EPYC “Venice” platform will be the first to utilize openSIL in 2026, following Phoenix by the end of this year. Next up is the Medusa family of processors with Medusa Ridge being the desktop line and Medusa Point for mobile applications. This platform is being tracked by many PC enthusiasts for its rumored increased core counts and improved memory support and not to be forgotten, expected to support the AM5 platform as well.
AMD has yet to reveal launch dates for Medusa, and while it’s been rumored that it might do so at CES 26, the slide shown at the OCP Global Summit indicates openSIL support occurring at the beginning of 2027. It’s too early to tell if this means that Medusa will, or will not, launch in 2026, as one possibility is that if AMD were able to overcome technical hurdles, it could launch select products supporting AGESA, which could be upgraded to openSIL later on, but this is pure speculation.
Meanwhile, for those wanting to know more about openSIL, Phoronix has a great library of articles to read up on.