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Firmware. Firmware is commonly stored in an EEPROM, which makes use of an I/O protocol such as SPI. In computing, firmware is software that provides low-level control of computing device hardware. For a relatively simple device, firmware may perform all control, monitoring and data manipulation functionality. For a more complex device, firmware ...
They can use different I/O protocols, but SPI is the most common. Unified Extensible Firmware Interface ( UEFI, / ˈjuːɪfaɪ / or as an acronym) [ b] is a specification that defines the architecture of the platform firmware used for booting the computer hardware and its interface for interaction with the operating system.
UEFI. In computing, BIOS ( / ˈbaɪɒs, - oʊs /, BY-oss, -ohss; Basic Input/Output System, also known as the System BIOS, ROM BIOS, BIOS ROM or PC BIOS) is firmware used to provide runtime services for operating systems and programs and to perform hardware initialization during the booting process (power-on startup). [ 1]
Embedded software is computer software, written to control machines or devices that are not typically thought of as computers, commonly known as embedded systems. It is typically specialized for the particular hardware that it runs on and has time and memory constraints. [ 1] This term is sometimes used interchangeably with firmware.
EFI system partition. The EFI ( Extensible Firmware Interface) system partition or ESP is a partition on a data storage device (usually a hard disk drive or solid-state drive) that is used by computers that have the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). When a computer is booted, UEFI firmware loads files stored on the ESP to start ...
Open-source firmware is firmware that is published under an open-source license. It can be contrasted with proprietary firmware , which is published under a proprietary license or EULA . [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ]
Kernel (operating system) The kernel is a computer program at the core of a computer 's operating system and generally has complete control over everything in the system. The kernel is also responsible for preventing and mitigating conflicts between different processes. [ 1] It is the portion of the operating system code that is always resident ...
Smartphones. On smartphones, tablets, and other devices, an over-the-air update is a firmware or operating system update that is downloaded by the device over the internet. Previously, users had to connect these devices to a computer over USB to perform an update. These updates may add features, patch security vulnerabilities, or fix software bugs.