Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
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 ...
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]
Hypervisor. A hypervisor, also known as a virtual machine monitor ( VMM) or virtualizer, is a type of computer software, firmware or hardware that creates and runs virtual machines. A computer on which a hypervisor runs one or more virtual machines is called a host machine, and each virtual machine is called a guest machine.
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.
By contrast, software is the set of instructions that can be stored and run by hardware. Hardware is so-termed because it is hard or rigid with respect to changes, whereas software is soft because it is easy to change. Hardware is typically directed by the software to execute any command or instruction.
Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI, / ˈ juː ɪ f aɪ / 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.
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 ...
Firmware is given its name because it is treated like hardware and run ("executed") by other software programs. Firmware often is not accessible for change by other entities but the developers' enterprises. Shrinkware is the older name given to consumer-purchased software, because it was often sold in retail stores in a shrink wrapped box.