ABCD is a distribution of complete boot chains that span from the first stage mask ROM that is etched into a chip up until the runtime operating system. Just like a mainstream Linux distribution, ABCD aims to provide binary artifacts that are painless to install and update. While Linux distributions provide installers and images for PCs, servers, IoT devices, and containers as well as spins for various desktop environments, ABCD provides boot chains consisting of a variety of boot loaders for many different types of devices.
ABCD aims to be as generic as possible and provide boot chain maintainers with ample freedom, while maintaining a rigorous set of guidelines. It also leverages existing mature community-based projects like Buildroot, LVFS/fwupd, U-Boot SPL, and LinuxBoot, which reduces maintenance and prevents reinventing the wheel.