AMD AGESA 1.0.0.7 may bring bugs, warns Asus' Elmor

Overclocker and Asus employee Elmor has warned of significant changes coming in AMD's AGESA 1.0.0.7 update which 'may result in further bugs' as the company brings support for Raven Ridge-based accelerated processing unit (APU) chips to the AM4 platform.

Since the launch of the AM4 platform and its Zen-based processors, AMD has been tweaking things through the release of microcode updates known as AMD Generic Encapsulated Software Architecture (AGESA). Supplied to motherboard manufacturers for inclusion in firmware updates, the AGESA releases are designed to modify the operation of both the motherboard chipset and the processors themselves with previously-released patches including a fix for the FMA3 hard-crash flaw in Zen and improved memory performance and compatibility.

The upcoming AGESA 1.0.0.7 release, however, could be one to watch for a while prior to installing, according to Asus employee and noted overclocker Elmor. In a post to the Overclock.net forum spotted by TechPowerUp, Elmor warns that 'AMD has also changed the entire BIOS base structure [in AGESA 1.0.0.7] so we have to do a lot of work to port everything to the new version, which may result in further bugs.'

The reason for the sudden shift in the way AMD's BIOS operates: the need to add support for new processors starting with the Raven Ridge APU family. The changes, Elmor explains, make it easier for AMD to extend CPU and APU support on the platform - and could not only cause the introduction of new and exciting bugs but also result in a significant delay before end-user firmware updates are made available, given that manufacturers will need to work harder to implement the changes and chase down as many bugs as possible prior to release.

AMD has not announced a launch date for AGESA 1.0.0.7.