Demistifying Firmware [closed]

Question

Closed. This question is off-topic. It is not currently accepting answers.

---

Want to improve this question? Update the question so it's on-topic for Stack Overflow.

Closed 9 years ago.

Improve this question

Firmware - What exactly is this? I know that it isn't a piece of code which just helps in communicating with the hardware since it is the device driver's function.

I guess it is something more complex than that. All the time I see firmware updates for my mp3 players and smartphone. In smartphones I see that after a firmware update the OS's version is bumped up e.g., from Ice Cream Sandwich it goes to Jelly Bean (Android). Does this mean that firmware is an alias to OS?

Answer 1

Firmware is just software that is programmed into a device. In the example you used, the OS would qualify being called firmware. In other devices, it could be less sophisticated than iOS or Android, for example, a lot of DVD players and Blueray players have a firmware component, so do smart TV that are Internet enabled and routers, for instance.