2/27/2019 Firmware - Wikipedia

Firmware
In electronic systems and computing, firmware[a] is a specific class of
computer softwarethat provides the low-level control for the device's specific hardware.
Firmware can either provide a standardized operating environment for the device's more
complex software(allowing more hardware-independence), or, for less complex devices, act
as the device's complete operating system, performing all control, monitoring and data
manipulation functions. Typical examples of devices containing firmware are embedded
systems, consumer appliances, computers, computer peripherals, and others. Almost all
electronic devices beyond the simplest contain some firmware.

Firmware is held in non-volatile memory devices such as ROM, EPROM, or flash memory.
Changing the firmware of a device may rarely or never be done during its lifetime; some
A television remote
firmware memory devices are permanently installed and cannot be changed after
control is an example of
manufacture. Common reasons for updating firmware include fixing bugs or adding an engineered product
features to the device. This may require ROM integrated circuits to be physically replaced, that contains firmware.
or flash memory to be reprogrammed through a special procedure.[2] Firmware such as The firmware monitors
the ROM BIOS of a personal computer may contain only elementary basic functions of a the buttons, controls
device and may only provide services to higher-level software. Firmware such as the the LEDs, and
processes the button
program of an embedded system may be the only program that will run on the system and
presses to send the data
provide all of its functions. in a format the receiving
device, in this case,
Before the inclusion of integrated circuits, other firmware devices included
a television set, can
a discretesemiconductor diode matrix. The Apollo guidance computer had firmware understand and process.
consisting of a specially manufactured core memory plane, called "core rope memory", In fact, the television's
where data was stored by physically threading wires through (1) or around (0) the core motherboard has
storing each data bit.[3] complex firmware too.

Contents
History
Applications
Personal computers
Consumer products
Automobiles
Examples
Flashing
Firmware hacking
HDD firmware hacks
Security risks
See also
Notes
References
External links

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History
Ascher Opler coined the term "firmware" in a 1967 Datamation article.[4] Originally, it meant the contents of a
writable control store (a small specialized high speed memory), containing microcode that defined and implemented the
computer's instruction set, and that could be reloaded to specialize or modify the instructions that the central processing
unit (CPU) could execute. As originally used, firmware contrasted with hardware (the CPU itself) and software (normal
instructions executing on a CPU). It was not composed of CPU machine instructions, but of lower-level microcode involved
in the implementation of machine instructions. It existed on the boundary between hardware and software; thus the name
"firmware". Over time, popular usage extended the word "firmware" to denote any computer program that is tightly linked
to hardware, including processor machine instructions for BIOS, bootstrap loaders, or the control systems for
simple electronic devices such as a microwave oven, remote control, or computer peripheral.

Applications

Personal computers
In some respects, the various firmware components are as important as
the operating system in a working computer. However, unlike most modern
operating systems, firmware rarely has a well-evolved automatic mechanism of
updating itself to fix any functionality issues detected after shipping the unit.

The BIOS may be "manually" updated by a user, using a small utility program.
In contrast, firmware in storage devices (harddisks, DVD drives, flash storage) ROM BIOS firmware on a Baby
rarely gets updated, even when flash (rather than ROM) storage is used for the ATmotherboard
firmware; there are no standardized mechanisms for detecting or updating
firmware versions.

Most computer peripherals are themselves special-purpose computers. Devices such as printers, scanners, cameras
and USB flash drives have internally stored firmware; some devices may also permit field upgrading of their firmware.

Some low-cost peripherals no longer contain non-volatile memory for firmware, and instead rely on the host system to
transfer the device control program from a disk file or CD.[5]

Consumer products
As of 2010, most portable music players support firmware upgrades. Some companies use firmware updates to add new
playable file formats (codecs); iriver added Vorbis playback support this way, for instance. Other features that may change
with firmware updates include the GUI or even the battery life. Most mobile phones have a Firmware Over The
Airfirmware upgrade capability for much the same reasons; some may even be upgraded to enhance reception or sound
quality, illustrating that firmware is used at more than one level in complex products (in a CPU-like microcontroller versus
in a digital signal processor, in this particular case).

Automobiles
Since 1996, most automobiles have employed an on-board computer and various sensors to detect mechanical problems.
As of 2010, modern vehicles also employ computer-controlled anti-lock braking systems (ABS) and computer-
operated transmission control units (TCUs). The driver can also get in-dash information while driving in this manner, such

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as real-time fuel economy and tire pressure readings. Local dealers can update most vehicle firmware.

Examples
Examples of firmware include:

In consumer products:

Timing and control systems for washing machines

Controlling sound and video attributes, as well as the channel list, in modern TVs
EPROM chips used in the Eventide H-3000 series of digital music processors
In computers:

The BIOS found in IBM-compatible personal computers

The (U)EFI-compliant firmware used on Itanium systems, Intel-based computers from Apple, and many Intel
desktop computer motherboards
Open Firmware, used in SPARC-based computers from Sun Microsystems and Oracle Corporation, PowerPC-
based computers from Apple, and computers from Genesi
ARCS, used in computers from Silicon Graphics
Kickstart, used in the Amiga line of computers (POST, hardware init + Plug and Play auto-configuration of
peripherals, kernel, etc.)
RTAS (Run-Time Abstraction Services), used in computers from IBM
The Common Firmware Environment (CFE)
In routers and firewalls:

LibreCMC – a 100% free software router distribution based on the Linux-libre kernel
IPFire – an open-source firewall/router distribution based on the Linux kernel
fli4l – an open-source firewall/router distribution based on the Linux kernel
OpenWrt – an open-source firewall/router distribution based on the Linux kernel
m0n0wall – an embedded firewall distribution of FreeBSD
In NAS systems:

NAS4Free – an open-source NAS operating system based on FreeBSD 9.1

Openfiler – an open-source NAS operating system based on the Linux kernel

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