Amd guardmi: what is it and what can it do for us?

AMD has a large number of user and business-oriented technologies deployed and today we will look at one of them. If you are interested in knowing a little more about AMD GuardMI, you have come to the right place. However, we warn you that it is a set of technologies for components that are only sold to companies.

Index of contents

Technology for Ryzen Pro CPUs: AMD GuardMI

As is evident, we will start by defining what AMD GuardMI is .

These processors are created according to customer requests and have the peculiarity of having some extra technologies.

For example, it ensures good security and data integrity from the moment we turn on until the equipment is turned off. In addition, it allows the encryption of information to prevent theft and other external attacks. Thus, any powerful medium computer in an office or bank, for example, has the power of the latest Ryzen and all the security of AMD GuardMI .

If you want to know more about Ryzen Pro business processors , you can read more on their website.

What do we need to know about Ryzen Pro ?

It is true that many companies use ordinary equipment for their day-to-day work. For example, if you work as a receptionist, in an office or from your home, you probably do not have a team with these characteristics. However, in more engaged jobs this extra layer of security may be necessary.

These processors boast of having better resistance to the passage of time. For this, technologies such as:

• More than a hundred sensors that allow algorithms to be able to regulate the intensity of work. In addition, they also allow us to be more efficient and consume less energy. Very respectable performance without discrete graphics thanks to the inclusion of integrated Radeon Vega graphics . Learning algorithms that generate work profiles to know when to boost or reduce the unit's work. Implementation of an Artificial Intelligence (neural network) with which the running application is evaluated and the following steps are predicted. With this we can streamline the work we are doing, especially if we follow a specific routine.

Not surprisingly, we have little information on the network about what other benefits AMD Ryzen Pro has . As it is a product for a very closed niche of people, it is not something that they advertise thoroughly.

Overall they should perform as well as their non-Pros counterparts. There should be no noticeable difference between a Ryzen Pro 5 3600X and a Ryzen 5 3600X .

Here is a video where they show the work of the animation company Jellyfish Pictures with AMD Ryzen Pro:

AMD GuardMI enhancements

The mantra that they repeat in the AMD GuardMI section is:

AMD GuardMI technology offers protection from power on to power off with a powerful security coprocessor inside each AMD Ryzen ™ PRO CPU.

And it is that these units come prepared to protect the equipment they serve from enough situations. As the slogan indicates, in addition to the compute nodes that the CPU has, the Ryzen Pro have an extra one.

This protection node actively coordinates and protects the processor and all data entering and leaving it. In fact, it even encrypts some data to protect it even outside the processor. But what things do we have to expect from this technology?

Below, we list the four most important points that the company itself refers to about AMD GuardMI. Most have to do with the protocols and technologies they use, but there is also room for other more common things.

AMD Memory Guard

This technology refers to the process of encrypting the information that enters the RAM . Drives with AMD GuardMI support AES 128-bit encryption and, in addition, it also supports Windows 10 Professional Enterprise Security .

This extra layer of security does not take into account either the active application or the Operating System it is running on, which offers great versatility. In this way we can protect sensitive information from more types of attacks, especially physical / face-to-face.

Best of all, this is available on all GuardMI compliant components, not just tops, as is sometimes the case.

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Secure boot

One of the dangers that someone can suffer when attacked is starting the computer from an unknown source. With a little trickery, an attacker can boot the computer from its own drive, giving it partial or full access.

The idea of 'safe boot' is quite simple: AMD Secure Processor will only launch the OS with trusted BIOS software for the manufacturer. This drastically reduces personalization and may limit us in some respects, but for the context of a company, it is not important.

Enabling trusted applications

This functionality has to do with the processor's trusted runtime environment.

The Ryzen Pro have a security subsystem with which it runs various features to protect the equipment. It is made up of different guidelines both from AMD , and from other cybersecurity companies.

These applications offer greater protection to the equipment, allowing manufacturers to create better and personalized security solutions. Trusted Ryzen ™ Pro applications include support for Firmware Based Secure Platform Module (fTPM) .

Reliable and safe production process

Finally, the last key point that AMD wants to establish regarding the Ryzen Pro is their good quality since they are assembled.

Among the key points of AMD GuardMI, this section ensures that systems, platforms and products are installed and configured correctly from the beginning. After all, it is the first clean install to be done.

Thus, the teams are fully ready and in their best shape to go out into the Internet jungle.

Final Words on AMD GuardMI

Since the data that is online is not very extensive, this is all we can collect from you. We hope you have understood it easily and that this brief article has helped you increase your knowledge.

For our part, as we already warned you at the beginning, AMD GuardMI only affects the processors of the PRO range. This means that you will only be interested in companies and work or study groups that request a personalized quote.

As for security, they are some good extra methods to keep teams very safe. However, according to some companies that are experts in the field, the protection offered by this technology is not special.

We could sum it up as that AMD GuardMI is an average technology. Neither stands out, nor is it worse than the rest of the competition.

And you, what do you think about AMD GuardMI ? Would you like to have a Ryzen Pro processor? Share your ideas in the comment box.

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