Crossword clues for firmware
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. 1 Something in-between hardware and software. Like software, it is created from source code, but it is closely tied to the hardware it runs on. 2 Software intended for such embedded computer applications.
WordNet
n. (computer science) coded instructions that are stored permanently in read-only memory [syn: microcode]
Wikipedia
In electronic systems and computing, firmware is a type of software that provides control, monitoring and data manipulation of engineered products and systems. Typical examples of devices containing firmware are embedded systems (such as traffic lights, consumer appliances, remote controls and digital watches), computers, computer peripherals, mobile phones, and digital cameras. The firmware contained in these devices provides the low-level control program for the device. As of 2013, most firmware can be updated.
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 economic lifetime; some firmware memory devices are permanently installed and cannot be changed after manufacture. Common reasons for updating firmware include fixing bugs or adding features to the device. This may require ROM integrated circuits to be physically replaced, or flash memory to be reprogrammed through a special procedure. Firmware such as the ROM BIOS of a personal computer may contain only elementary basic functions of a device and may only provide services to higher-level software. Firmware such as the program of an embedded system may be the only program that will run on the system and provide all of its functions.
Before integrated circuits, other firmware devices included a discrete semiconductor diode matrix. The Apollo guidance computer had firmware consisting of a specially manufactured core memory plane, called " core rope memory", where data were stored by physically threading wires through (1) or around (0) the core storing each data bit.
Usage examples of "firmware".
The program ports itself to all four corners, stopping to seed every intermediary, driven by the universal firmware kernel buried inside it.
Annette does a double-take as her thesaurus conspires with her open government firmware and dumps a geographical database of city social services into her sensorium.
Additionally, a dropped parity bit in its firmware would prevent self-detection of the flaw.
Not to mention they want to require a firmware check on every stereo system that gets a song, make sure that this week's copy-protection is installed.