Tag: Microsoft Surface

Microsoft Surface seeks UEFI engineer

~ hucktech ~ Leave a comment

Senior Embedded Software Firmware Engineer- Surface

The Surface development team is seeking a talented software development engineer with a strong systems background and experience with hardware and firmware interaction. Job responsibilities will encompass designing and coding drivers, tools and firmware across various technologies in Surface devices within the Surface team as well as with partners to deliver high quality products to market.

A few of the Qualifications:

“High tolerance to ambiguity and ability make progress in the face of it.”

“Ability to quickly ramp-up on complex and unfamiliar code.”

https://careers.microsoft.com/jobdetails.aspx?jid=283564&job_id=1044422

PS: I recently briefly used a Surface Book, USB stopped working after 2 days of use, the only way to get it to work again was to disable UEFI Secure Boot and TPM support. I was expecting a lot more from the modern Microsoft w/r/t hardware QA. I hope the Microsoft OEM unit is also hiring STEs…

Microsoft seeks Senior UEFI Engineer

~ hucktech ~ Leave a comment

The Surface Team focuses on building devices that fully express the Windows vision. Be part of the team that brings to life experiences in Microsoft Windows and Office through the hardware of its Microsoft Surface product line.   Our team develops the UEFI and firmware that connects the operating system to the hardware. Candidate will be a member of the Surface SW/FW team and be responsible for developing, adapting and fixing code related to UEFI. As a member of the team, candidate will actively participate on development practices such as task planning/sizing and scheduling, bug triage and bug management.   Candidate will actively participate in SCRUM meetings, documenting progress and updating tasks. Candidates are expected to collaborate and familiarize with other functions within the team in order to develop BIOS code that adapts the HW to platform requirements. […]

https://careers.microsoft.com/jobdetails.aspx?jid=275588&job_id=1016471

 

Microsoft Surface Enterprise Management Mode (SEMM)

~ hucktech ~ Leave a comment

Quoting the Ars Technica story:

[…]To further increase the appeal of the Surface in constrained enterprise environments, today Microsoft is announcing Surface Enterprise Management Mode (SEMM) for Surface Pro 4, Surface Book, and Surface Studio. SEMM enables administrators with physical access to the hardware to lock out integrated peripherals such as webcam, microphone, and USB ports. This locking out is done by the firmware, disabling the devices in question, rendering them wholly inaccessible to the operating system. It’s intended as a much more elegant alternative to supergluing the ports or drilling out the cameras. SEMM is designed to allow not just static configuration, wherein the devices are disabled permanently, but also dynamic configuration that responds to the environment. For example, a SEMM system could be configured so that when it was on a classified network the USB ports and camera were disabled, but when on an open network they were re-enabled. The system uses digital signatures and certificates to manage the configurations, preventing end users from re-enabling devices that they shouldn’t have access to.[…]

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/02/no-more-superglued-usb-ports-surface-hardware-can-be-locked-down-in-firmware/

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/itpro/surface/surface-enterprise-management-mode

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/surface/2017/01/16/introducing-surface-enterprise-management-mode-and-system-center-configuration-manager-support-for-semm/

 

 

Microsoft Surface

~ hucktech ~ Leave a comment

This is an interesting Twitter thread to read, giving a bit of information on Intel ME use by Microsoft — in the capacity of a BIOS vendor, IBV — on it’s Surface device.

In other Surface news, ARM has a post about the device including an ARM chip:

http://www.theverge.com/2016/11/29/13775320/microsoft-surface-studio-ifixit-teardown