Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Firmware
In computing, firmware is software that is embedded in a hardware device, that allows reading and executing the software, and can be edited (e.g., writing or deleting data by an end user).
Examples of firmware include:
- the BIOS found in personal computers,
- Open Firmware, used in Apple Macintosh computers,
- the computer program in a read-only memory (ROM) integrated circuit (A hardware configuration is usually used to represent the software.),
- the erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM) chip, whose program may be modified by special external hardware, but not by an application program.
Source: from Federal Standard 1037C and from MIL-STD-188
Unauthorised modified firmware is sometimes used to provide functionality not intended by the manufacturer, for example to defeat the region encoding of DVD players.
See also
10-26-2009 08:16:03
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The contents of this article is licensed from www.wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details