Let me try again to state what I stated before, with some new insides, because Tim brought the new equation: HAP intothis discussion.
HAP - High Assurance Platform is long known (I know it from 2014), and its purpose, introduced by INTEL ME team was
to disable ME as an application in INTEL embedded applications. I am not sure how this reflects The Truth, since no one
truly knows in details the PCH (South Bride) design.
From this what I wrote here, DELL, per say, will have NO any Legal Issues, since they signed agreement with INTEL to
use HAP, my best guess. DELL will use NOTHING what Black Hat hackers discovered, just legal means (RSNDA): HAP!
Let me repeat the rest, from the very instructive and perfect link, outlining all what Black Hat hackers did to reveal internals
"The disappointing fact is that on modern computers, it is impossible to completely disable ME. This is primarily due
to the fact that this technology is responsible for initialization, power management, and launch of the main processor."
I will repeat again (in RED). Long before BIOS starts, there are (at least >5) very complex phases how the whole platform, by HW
and FW is initialized. There are several components which are interacting with PCH, thus/read ME, BEFORE BIOS starts, These
components are the following:
PMIC (Power Management IC, integrated or discrete)
EC (Embedded Controller)
Some of IO init (HW wise default straps, then ME applied FW straps)
ICC (Integrated Clock Controller)
All of which need to be set correctly BEFORE MEI allows BIOS to start. And there are some relationships among these entities
in the process of ME driving init of these components.
It is a Rocket Science, after all (IMHO). Not going deeper into these details.
This could NOT be removed, and, in my opinion, do not even try to do that. But one can always try. Good Luck! ;-)
All the rest CAN and SHOULD be removed... Which does NOT guarantee that some hidden processes in ME inside PCH do not
run (outside 32MB DDR memory, reserved solely for ME as application, could be blocked).
All said here, IMHO!
Zoran