Free hardware is increasingly scarce, but the Free Software Foundation (FSF) is still holding on to its philosophy, and its server configurations are quite old because newer generations of hardware contain non-free proprietary firmware. FSF recently said it replaced the last machine running a non-free BIOS. It currently has two data centers and over a hundred virtual machines. The standard configuration of its server is an ASUS KGPE-D16 motherboard and an AMD 6200 series CPU released in 2012, and the BIOS uses Libreboot. FSF is currently working to support Raptor Computer Systems’ newer and more powerful Talos II, as well as Blackbird motherboards using IBM POWER9 CPUs. Raptor’s motherboards support completely free firmware and feature free hardware designs. CPUs released by Intel and AMD after 2013 are not free, no free BIOS is available, because these CPUs will have proprietary firmware such as Intel Management Engine installed in the BIOS, and these CPUs will also refuse to run AMD and Intel private keys cryptographically signed firmware, while AMD and Intel will only sign their own non-free firmware. FSF says the road to freedom is a long one.
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