Arm SystemReady is a set of standards and a compliance certification program that ensures systems Just Work. Systems that are designed to Just Work should install and run generic, off-the-shelf operating systems straight out of the box.

To do this, the system design must follow a set of minimum hardware and firmware requirements. Arm SystemReady builds on the foundations and success of the Arm ServerReady program. Arm SystemReady applies the Arm ServerReady standards framework to a broader set of devices. The standards are applied initially in the embedded-server and high-performance IoT ecosystems, extending the proposition from the cloud to the infrastructure and IoT edge.

This page describes and provides links to the following specifications:

Arm SystemReady Requirements specification

The SystemReady Requirements specification (SRS) describes the technical requirements for a system to become Arm SystemReady. The specification outlines the program and provides guidance on hardware and firmware conditions for certification of the individual SystemReady bands – SR, ES, IR and LS.

Download SRS

Arm Base System Architecture specification

The Base System Architecture (BSA) specification details a hardware system architecture, based on Arm 64-bit architecture, that system software, like operating systems, hypervisors, and firmware, can rely on. The specification addresses processing element (PE) features and important aspects of system architecture.

The primary goal of the BSA is to document a minimum set of CPU and system architectures. These architectures are necessary, when accompanied by appropriate firmware, to enable a generic off-the-shelf OS image to install, boot, and run on all hardware that is compliant with this specification. This specification includes aspects like PCIe integration.

Download BSA

Arm Server Base System Architecture supplement specification

The Server Base System Architecture (SBSA) specification is a supplement to the Base System Architecture specification, for servers. The SBSA describes the server hardware requirements and features required for a server OS. The specification contains a set of levels that document an increasing set of hardware features, following the progression of the CPU architecture. Note: The SBSA supplement version 6.1, combined with the BSA version 1.0, is equivalent to version 6 of the original SBSA Specification.

Download SBSA

Arm Base Boot Requirements specification

The Base Boot Requirements (BBR) specification specifies requirements for systems that are based on Arm architecture and that operating systems and hypervisors can rely on. This specification establishes the firmware interface requirements, like PSCI, SMCCC, UEFI, ACPI, and SMBIOS. This specification also provides the recipes for:

  • SBBR: Specifying UEFI, ACPI, and SMBIOS requirements to boot generic, off-the-shelf operating systems and hypervisors like Windows, VMware, RHEL, Oracle Linux, and Amazon Linux. Other OSes like Debian, Fedora, CentOS, SLES, Ubuntu, openSUSE, FreeBSD, and NetBSD are also supported.
  • EBBR: Specifying, along with the EBBR specification, UEFI requirements to boot generic, off-the-shelf operating systems, like Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, openSUSE, and providing benefits for vertically integrated OS platforms.
  • LBBR: Specifying potential requirements for the LinuxBoot firmware, to boot the OSes that some hyperscalers use.

Download BBR

Arm Base Boot Security Requirements specification

The Base Boot Security Requirements (BBSR) specification specifies security interface requirements and guidance for systems that are compliant with the Base Boot Requirements (BBR) specification. The focus of BBR is standards-based boot and runtime services. BBR does not address security. Alternatively, BBSR identifies the platform requirements for BBR-based systems that enable suitably built, standard operating systems to seamlessly use standard security interfaces.

Compliance with BBSR provides assurance that the security features in scope are implemented according to the previous standards but does not provide assurance that a platform is secure.

In the process of architecting a system, system-level threat modeling should be performed to evaluate threats, risks, and mitigations. The Platform Security Architecture (PSA) and the PSA Certified framework do provide a comprehensive approach to platform security, based on a defined set of security goals. BBSR complements PSA, which provides architecture and requirements specifications for building secure platforms. PSA Certified provides confidence through assessment of security best practices and implementation.

Download BBSR

Architectural compliance suite

The Architectural Compliance Suite (ACS) for Arm ServerReady is used for Arm SystemReady SR v2.0 and ES v1.0.

Arm is restructuring the ACS to make it modular, and to support testing against the different combinations of specifications that are required by a SystemReady band. The test suites are hosted in GitHub and are open source (Apachev2).