What is Firmware?

[Fishbate]

When one say firmware.....you'd probably thinking about computers,laptops, electronics appliances and of course smartphones.

You probably heard about firmware-upgrade, flashing and Jtag . These are common topic when you are referring to firmware. But what is firmware?

Firmware refers to the applications and operating system that control how a cellphone or smartphone operates. It is called firmware rather than software to highlight that it is very closely tied to the particular hardware components of a device.

Firmware is generally flashed into a phone's ROM rather than simply being loaded into normal phone storage, where it could more easily be erased and lost in the event of a crash.

Knowing how important is firmware to our smartphones. We should have the basic knowledge how to identify it and of course how to access it.

In order to access your firmware information you can go to your dialer and tap in *#1234#
Note: I use a SAMSUNG smartphone to access this.

Now this information may not be as useful for an ordinary day. But knowing your firmware may come in handy in the future if your planning to upgrade your firmware.

Have a good one guys! cheers!

 

[ElGuapo96]

Wait a second, so it's called firmware instead of software because of what exactly? I don't think i understood that part very well. Care to elaborate?
Also one more question. Are they automatically updated or we, the customers have to do it manually? This is honestly the first time i have heard about this, forgive me for being this persistent

 

[DenisMNE]

DenisMNE

Haha, I was almost about to type the same thing.
I never heard about this thing before and would like to join in a conversation you guys are having.
Not very much of an expert in this field but glad to have people in here explain it in details.

 

[mikaelmatt152312]

For my own understanding, Firmware is a software that is embedded in a piece of hardware. You can think of firmware simply as "software for hardware". Devices that you might think of as strictly hardware such as optical drives, a network card, a router, a camera, or a scanner all have software that is programmed into a special memory contained in the hardware itself.

 

[ElGuapo96]

Oh, okay. I understand now. So it's basically a software implemented into a certain hardware, thanks for clearing that up. Is that something new or has it been present in phones for a while now? Also, you possess a great knowledge regarding the subject. Thanks for contributing

 

[tedzk26]

Firmware is considered to be a mix of hardware and software. It is better to say that it is the embedded software within hardware that allows said hardware to communicate and function properly.

 

[JackOAT]

Almost all electronic devices beyond the simplest contain some firmware. It is a software that’s embedded within devices like printers, scanners and cameras. It is added during the manufacturing process and provides the low-level control necessary to operate the device. Firmware enables us to control a device and the simplest way to understand what firmware does is to think of it like a computer’s operating system (OS).

 

[EfficientNinja]

I basically refer to it as the operating system for phones or other electronics. It’s because it lets both the hardware and software communicate. It’s like a middleman.