The world of firmware is a critical yet often ignored aspect of computing. Recently, private equity firm THL announced plans to acquire AMI, a leader in firmware for compute devices, especially in the data center. AMI provides firmware for PCs, smartphones, and servers, making it a crucial player in the industry.
Firmware is software that sits between a processor and the operating system of a computer. It includes categories like BIOS/UEFI – connecting the processor to all the other elements of the system – and various embedded security features. Firmware engineers need to understand all the low-level primitives of this hardware, making it a complex and critical task.
AMI is one of the few companies that has successfully transitioned from designing firmware for PCs to smartphones and now servers. Their presence in smartphones has been less prominent, but they are essentially the only company that has stuck all three of these landings. Many of their competitors fell away over the years, never successfully moving into new product lines.
Why AMI Matters
Today, almost any company that wants to design a server but does not want to write its own firmware needs to work with AMI. As data centers become more heterogeneous and complex, the work of building firmware is becoming harder and more important. AMI’s expertise in firmware design makes it a crucial player in the industry.
Jonathan Goldberg is the founder of D2D Advisory, a multi-functional consulting firm. He has developed growth strategies and alliances for companies in the mobile, networking, gaming, and software industries.