Modern Arm and RISC-V servers are built from a stack of complex, interdependent
UEFI and ACPI for standards-compliant boot and power management
BMC firmware for out-of-band control
OpenSBI and Trusted Firmware for low-level initialization
Linux kernel that must integrate cleanly with all of the above.
Getting this right is hard. Getting it wrong delays launches, blocks distro certification,
and creates a long-term maintenance burden your team will feel for years.
RISCstar’s Linux Server Engineering team helps you ship reliable, secure, and
maintainable server platforms by taking ownership of the lowest layers of your
software stack—so your team can focus on workloads, differentiation, and customers.
The problem: complex server platforms, fragile foundations
New Arm and RISC-V server platforms face a consistent set of challenges:
Platform bring-up complexity: Making OpenSBI, Trusted Firmware-A, UEFI/EDK2, ACPI, and Linux work together in harmony.
Distribution upstream requirements: Ensuring your platform support is upstream so that major Linux distributions (Red Hat, Ubuntu, Debian, etc.) can support your hardware without a private fork.
Security and trust: Implementing secure boot, firmware update paths, and signing flows across system firmware and the BMC.
BMC and manageability integration: Integrating OpenBMC or a commercial BMC stack with host firmware, sensors, power, and network, ensuring the platform is serviceable for operations teams.
Long-term maintenance: Every out-of-tree patch and private fork increases technical debt and the cost of future kernel and firmware updates.
Engineers that are busy fighting low-level firmware or trying to upstream support for
your platform are not building the features that differentiate your platform in the
market.
Our deep domain expertise
We live in the lowest layers of the stack for Arm and RISC-V servers. Our engineers have
hands-on experience with:
Low-level firmware and boot stacks
OpenSBI and platform firmware for RISC-V
Trusted Firmware-A and related Arm firmware components
UEFI/EDK2 and ACPI for standards-compliant boot
Linux kernel enablement
Board and SoC support for Arm and RISC-V
Power, clocks, and reset controllers
PCIe, storage, networking, and accelerator enablement
NUMA, SMP, and virtualization support
System management and BMC
OpenBMC platform bring-up and customization
Sensor, fan, and power policy integration
Host–BMC communication and orchestration
Distribution and upstream collaboration
Preparing and submitting patches to upstream communities
Aligning platform support with distribution requirements
Designing for long-term maintainability
This is what we do every day — on real hardware, with real deadlines.
How we work with your team
We integrate with your engineering team and take joint responsibility for delivering a
robust platform foundation.
Discovery and Architecture
Our engineers seek to understand your SoC, board
design, target workloads, and deployment model. We assess your firmware,
boot, BMC, and Linux requirements and identify gaps, risks, and non-standard
components
Platform bring-up and Integration
We expertly configure and integrate OpenSBI
/ TF-A / UEFI / ACPI as well as bring up Linux on your reference and production
hardware. Enable system manageability by integrating BMC functionality
(OpenBMC or commercial solutions) with your platform.
Upstreaming and distribution alignment
RISCstar will ensure that major Linux
distributions can enable your hardware cleanly by ensuring it is supported
upstream. We will prepare patches following upstream coding and review
practices and work with communities to get your platform support accepted.
Validation and Hardening
RISCstar engineers will exercise boot flows, power
states, and recovery paths, and validate firmware update and secure boot
chains using industry standard CI/CD techniques. We will stress-test platform
features such as storage, networking, and accelerators
Deployment and long-term maintenance & support
RISCstar will document
platform enablement and maintenance workflows for ease of long term
maintenance and support. We can train your team on ongoing updates and
upstream sync, as well as offer ongoing engineering support as your platform
evolves.
Whether you’re enabling a brand-new SoC, bringing a new server to market or an
infrastructure provider needing a reliable, upstream Linux base, RISCstar can help.
Why RISCstar?
If you have—
Focused on Arm and RISC-V server platforms: This isn’t a sideline—we specialize in this space.
Upstream-first mindset: We design your platform support to live upstream, so you’re not stuck with ever increasing technical debt burden
End-to-end low-level expertise: We own the bottom of the stack so you can focus on everything above it.
RISCstar, a Partner For Success
If you have—
an Arm or RISC-V server platform that needs firmware and Linux enablement,
a BMC or OpenBMC integration that isn’t quite there yet, or
a platform you’re struggling to get accepted by upstream or major distributions,
We would love to help.
Contact us to discuss your Linux Server Platform Engineering needs
RISCstar will help bring your Arm and RISC-V server platforms to market faster—with a
rock-solid firmware and Linux foundation.
