Neutralize ME firmware on SandyBridge and IvyBridge platforms

So that means they figured out how to chop up the ME, and how to only keep the part that prevents the machine to reboot every 30 min? that's definitely a huge progress. As an X230 owner, I'm particularly happy about this.

Some more details:
http://www.win-raid.com/t2443f39-Remove-ME-Ignition-firmware-completely-amp-Panther-Point-PCH-observations.html

Removing or rewriting that last part seems tough though.
But this is very promising.

me_cleaner status

https://github.com/corna/me_cleaner/issues/3

I finally looked into this, and if I understand correctly, then no, Libreboot can never support the systems that have the ME "neutralized" in this way. The reason being that this isn't an effort to eliminate the proprietary ME firmware, just an attempt to minimize it. Part of the ME has to be kept on these systems to do some hardware initialization. What was found, though, is that this part of the ME can be executed without the parts that cause systems with the ME to be vulnerable, so while it's not free of proprietary firmware, it's safer than it originally was. Essentially, it's a hack to cripple the capability of the ME firmware as much as possible.

This is an improvement, and if this or something like it turns out to be possible for Haswell and Skylake CPUs, it could be something useful for Think Penguin to look into in the future. But when it comes to freedom-respecting computers, x86 is still a dead end and the ThinkPad X200 and T400 are still the best you can do.

It is reported to work with Skylake/Kabylake: https://github.com/corna/me_cleaner/wiki/me_cleaner-status