Chrome OS is a Linux-based operating system developed by Google that aims to provide a fast, simple, and secure environment for the web.

One of the main goals of the project is security, and in order to provide a secure environment we developed a firmware and kernel solution called Verified Boot that strives to ensure all executed code is known to be safe from the moment the system is powered on.

Another goal of ours is pushing open source wherever possible. So for our second generation of Chrome OS devices we created a firmware stack based on the open source projects Coreboot and U-boot, paired with our own Verified Boot.

This presentation will discuss our new firmware stack and the reasons behind it, provide detail on what effort was required to support Intel's Sandybridge/Ivybridge architecture in Coreboot, and discuss what portions of the firmware are not yet open and why.

It will also provide detail on our open source Embedded Controller firmware and why that is another important piece of our approach to security and our commitment to open source.