Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “What Makes ALL Your Electronics Work – Firmware Explained”.
Typically, we think of hardware and software as separate entities that work together to provide us with the computing experience that we know and tolerate hardware is the tangible stuff you can touch like a keyboard or a hard drive. While software is the lines of code that tell the computer to make games, tweets and CD doings actually appear on your screen, but you may have also heard the word firmware tossed around a fair bit. So what is that? Is it something you buy to show off? Your buttons of Steel after spending enough time at the gym, no firmware, is often thought of as something in between the software and the hardware. It’S actually a specific kind of software, but unlike your operating system or any other kind of program, it does not typically sit on a hard drive or an SSD.
Instead, firmware can usually be found on dedicated memory chips, and it’s that fact combined with that. It sits very close to the metal that leads people to think of it, as kind of like a a hardware software hybrid unit. But then what does close to the metal mean exactly well.
The code that makes up firmware communicates very directly with your hardware. Unlike a regular program, which has to go through, AP is the operating system and device drivers, and the reason for this is that it’s meant to provide a fundamental basic link and method of control for the system’s hardware. For example, inside of a PC there’s a chip that stores the system’s UEFI or bios, which are specific types of firmware that you can learn more about right up here. The BIOS starts running as soon as you press the button on your computer initializing the hardware, depending on how you’ve got it configured and checking for any errors. Once all that’s done, the BIOS hands virtually all of its control over to a much more complex operating system. Such as Windows or Mac OS, however, the BIOS and older systems provided a simple, reliable link between peripherals like the keyboard and system software, even after the operating system started running other types of firmware take a much more active role in how a system functions. Your desktop monitor has to decode the digital signal that sent over an HDMI or DisplayPort cable to create the image that you see, which requires processing. So therefore, it needs some firmware to run the show when you bring up that on-screen menu.
You know to change the brightness on your monitor or whatever what you’re seeing there is the firmware acting as the monitors entire operating system, so even very simple devices like TV, remote control need firmware to turn your button mashes into infrared beams that your TV can comprehend. So because firmware is so important to these fundamental linkages, it does sometimes need to be updated in order to provide extra functionality or to fix bugs. A great example is how BIOS updates are issued for motherboards, so that they can support a new CPU that uses the same socket, for example, but because most electronics cannot function without firmware. It’S often recommended to leave it alone.
Unless there is a specific problem that you know would be fixed with an update, because if the update fails due to something like a power outage, the system can end up being permanently bricked. Now, unlike a corrupted OS, which can just be wiped and reinstalled corrupted firmware. Often can’t be fixed, as the system can no longer even understand that you want to wipe and reinstall the firmware.
It needs not corrupted firmware for that and, while some modern systems try to avoid this problem by having like a second bios or firmware as a fail-safe, many gadgets lack this option so make sure that you use caution when you’re updating your firmware make sure the battery Is charged use a UPS for your desktop PC or your television, and also verify that you’re getting firmware from a reputable source like the manufacturer itself, then there’s other firmware that can’t be updated at all either because it’s stored on ROM or read-only chips. That physically cannot be updated or because there’s some kind of a software lock some devices simply don’t need firmware. Updates like a really simple USB stick, while others use firmware to store proprietary features, making them harder for competitors to figure out.
However, software restrictions on firmware can often be easily bypassed, either by installing custom firmware that can sometimes enable additional functionality or by malicious actors that use firmware as an attack. Vector firmware often has no encryption whatsoever, and developers have mostly been concentrating on making operating systems and applications secure instead, making firmware a target for both hackers and spy agencies, especially because a firmware hack would obviously survive. Reformatting the hard drive and can be very difficult to detect and because firmware directly controls Hardware hacked firmware can actually cause physical damage.
Even there was a proof-of-concept on a few years ago, where a researcher hacked the firmware of an apple macbook battery to cause it to overcharge and permanently break. Hopefully, no one will be able to figure out how to hack the firmware of the smart pizza cutter. I just bought, I can’t oh, I was going to our sponsor fresh books. Fresh books is the small business accounting software, that’s custom-built for how you want to work. It’S a simple way to be more productive, more organized and, of course, to get paid faster with fresh books.
You can create and send professional-looking invoices in less than 30 seconds. You can set up online payments with just a couple of clicks to get paid up to four days faster. You can see when your client has first viewed your invoice to put an end to the guessing games on the back and forth, and you don’t have to take my word for it: go: try it out for free for 30 days at FreshBooks, comm, slash tech, quickie. Just make sure you enter tech quickie in the.
How did you hear about us section? So, thanks for watching guys like dislike check out our other videos and leave a comment with a suggestion for a future fast as possible. We would love to cover it for you. So that when you’re subscribed make sure you do that too, you will see it .