Insyde H2O Firmware

Introduction

The first few Google ChromeOS devices used a custom firmware based on a proprietary base often referred to as "H2C". It's a 64 bit UEFI BIOS from Insyde named H2O ("Hardware-2-Operating System"), but a lot of code/features have been stripped out to significantly speed things up. Basically, everything not needed to boot ChromeOS was removed.

Unfortunately, this also means the firmware source cannot be released.

Version Info

The version numbers can be broken down like so:

• <board>.<Insyde H2O core version>.<Google H2C version>.<release number>
  • the board will be Mario for the CR-48
  • the H2O version will be three dotted values and really only have meaning to Insyde
  • the H2C (Hardware to Chrome) version is:
    • Insyde release of 4 digits
    • the letter 'G'
    • a number incremented by Google for each release
  • the release number for the project itself:
    • Insyde release of 4 digits
    • letters incremented by Google for each release

Here is an example from the CR-48:

• Mario.03.60.1120.0038G5.0018d
  • board: Mario
  • H2O core version: 03.60.1120
  • H2C version: 0038G5
    • Insyde release: 0038
    • Google release: 5
  • Project version: 0018d
    • Insyde release: 0018
    • Google release: d (4th -> d)