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firmware
(redirected from Firmware level)

    Also found in: Medical, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.09 sec.

firmware

A category of memory chips that hold their content without electrical power. Firmware includes rewritable flash memory and EEPROM, reprogrammable PROM and EPROM and read-only ROM technologies. Early firmware chips were low capacity and costly and used only to hold instructions and settings, especially in portable devices. In addition, the content stored in the first chips really was "firm," either read-only (permanent) or reprogrammable with difficulty (see ROM, PROM and EPROM).

Flash memory, the most common firmware, is rewritable, and used like a computer's hard disk. Today's portable devices use gigabytes of flash memory for songs, photos and videos as well as software applications. See memory, flash memory and FOTA.

Firmware - Software stored in read-only memory (ROM) or programmable ROM (PROM). Easier to change than hardware but harder than software stored on disk. Firmware is often responsible for the behaviour of a system when it is first switched on. A typical example would be a "monitor" program in a microcomputer which loads the full operating system from disk or from a network and then passes control to it.
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nbsp;authentication at the firmware level, which will prevent tampering of the operating system or the hard disk.
Phoenix Technologies Announces BIOS Replacement Product That Supports ... by Business Wire
Our offerings deliver built-in device defense at the firmware level for the full range of X86-based devices, including embedded PCs, industrial controllers, test and measurement devices, and rugged blade servers.
Phoenix Showcases `Secure from the Start' Platform at Embedded World ... by Business Wire
When a drive is added to the Scalar i2000, the system checks its firmware level and automatically matches that drive's firmware to the other drives in the library or partition based on user-defined policies.
ADIC Introduces Major Upgrade to Intelligent Enterprise Tape Library by Business Wire
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