zlacker

Pulling a physical chip to upgrade the firmware would generate so many returns or RMAs that it would be dropped as a feature immediately.

These days it’s common to do firmware updates to address small issues or even support the new CPU that was launched after the motherboard was manufactured.

I could see manufacturers adding a write-protect physical switch for those who want it. Make it opt-in and toggleable.

>>Aurorn+(OP)
AMD have recently changed the firmware loading signature verification method to apply cpu microcode that uses the on-motherboard tooling.

Using the method you talk about would mean that this kind of update wouldnt be possible, 99% of users would never toggle with a switch to update firmware.

This would be a huge burden in the server world too, to unrack flip switch, update, revert switch re-install.

I assume you mean specifically motherboard firmware updates, because firmware updates are actually pretty common, for most server grade motherboards vendors ship updates about every other month[1].

1. https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/lin...