Users cry foul after AMD stripped memory crypto from its consumer CPUs

HSI output showing that his Ryzen CPU once provided TSME but no longer does. AMD pulled the feature for consumer CPUs without notice or an easy means for users to know. Credit: Ben Kilpatrick HSI output showing that his Ryzen CPU once provided TSME but no longer does. AMD pulled the feature for consumer CPUs without notice or an easy means for users to know. Credit: Ben Kilpatrick This sent Kilpatrick into a monthslong investigation to figure out what had happened. After sending an inquiry to both the support and engineering teams at MSI, the manufacturer of his motherboard, he finally convinced company engineers to run tests. They found that consumer versions of Ryzen running on MSI and Gigabyte motherboards had TSME enabled when an older firmware version, available exclusively through the AMD Generic Encapsulated Software Architecture (AGESA), described here , was used during the boot process. When the firmware in a newer AGESA, specifically version 1.2.7.0, ran instead, TSME showed as “not supported.” Pro versions of the Ryzen CPU supported TSME across both motherboards and AGESA versions. “The big outstanding question is whether this is a deliberate policy decision by AMD to restrict TSME to PRO chips, or an unintentional regression that was introduced in AGESA 1.2.7.0,” Kilpatrick told Ars. …