TECHNIQUES FOR RESTRICTED DEPLOYMENT OF TARGETED PROCESSOR FIRMWARE UPDATES

Methods and apparatus for restricted deployment of targeted processor firmware updates. During a patch enabling per-work flow, service entitlement license information comprising one of more service entitlements is generated and provisioned on one or more computing platforms. A restricted deployment microcode (uCode) update release (aka uCode patch) targeted for platforms having CPUs and/or XPUs with certain part identifier is sent to the one or more platforms. Run-time software and/or firmware on the platforms are executed to access the provisioned service entitlement license information, which is used to authentic and verify the restricted deployment uCode update release using a service entitlement having a part identifier associated with the platform's CPU. In one solution, authentication is performed using a hash-matching scheme and verification is used to verify the platform is properly licensed to load uCode included in the restricted deployment microcode (uCode) update release into the CPU.