Simulate OpenBMC and UEFI pre-silicon on Neoverse RD-V3

Who is this for?

This advanced topic is for firmware developers, platform software engineers, and system integrators working on Arm Neoverse-based platforms. It is especially useful for developers exploring pre-silicon development, testing, and integration of Baseboard Management Controllers (BMC) with UEFI firmware. If you are building or validating server-class reference platforms such as RD-V3, before hardware is available, this Learning Path shows you how to simulate and debug the full boot path using Fixed Virtual Platforms (FVPs).

What will you learn?

Upon completion of this Learning Path, you will be able to:

• Understand the role of OpenBMC and UEFI in the Arm server boot flow
• Simulate the firmware using the RD-V3 FVP
• Build and launch OpenBMC and UEFI images on the RD-V3 FVP
• Validate host–BMC communication using UART and Serial over LAN (SoL)
• Implement and validate a custom IPMI command in OpenBMC

Prerequisites

Before starting, you will need the following:

• An Arm Neoverse-based Linux machine (cloud or local) running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
• At least 80 GB free disk space and 48 GB RAM
• Working knowledge of Docker, Git, and common Linux terminal tools
• Basic understanding of the server firmware stack (such as UEFI, BMC, and TF-A)