China has introduced UBIOS, a new firmware designed to replace the classic BIOS and the UEFI standard. The main goal is clear: reduce the country’s technological dependence on the United States.
UBIOS — The New Chinese Standard to Replace UEFI
China has been working for years to reduce its reliance on U.S. technology. After much progress, the country has now taken another step forward by launching a new standard to replace BIOS.
The announcement came from the Global Computing Consortium (thanks Tom’s Hardware), which revealed the new system under the name “Unified Basic Input/Output System” (UBIOS). The firmware was developed from scratch by 13 Chinese companies, including Huawei, Byosoft, Kunlun Tech, and the China Electronics Standardization Institute (CESI).
Unlike UEFI, which evolved from the traditional BIOS and is maintained by an alliance led by Intel and AMD, UBIOS has been built independently. It offers a lighter architecture tailored to China’s own technology ecosystem.
According to Fast Technology, UBIOS is built directly on the original BIOS specification, avoiding what its creators describe as the complexity and bloat of UEFI and its reference implementation, TianoCore EDK II.
Advantages of UBIOS Over UEFI
Among its strengths, UBIOS promises greater compatibility with non-x86 architectures such as ARM, RISC-V, and LoongArch. It also offers better support for chiplet designs and heterogeneous multicore systems. This means computers with different types of processors will be able to work together more efficiently — something that UEFI still struggles with.
This development is part of China’s strategic plan known as “Document 79”, which aims to replace Western hardware and software in all sectors by 2027. With UBIOS, China strengthens its technological independence and moves closer to a fully national computing ecosystem.
UBIOS will be officially introduced at the Global Computing Conference 2025 in Shenzhen this November. It remains to be seen whether this standard will become a real alternative to UEFI or stay a domestic initiative — and whether it can be applied across the entire national IT infrastructure.
