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It’s a well established term. Coined in 1967 according to Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firmware https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firmware
by asplake 6y ago
It’s a well established term. Coined in 1967 according to Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firmware https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firmware
- jansan 6y agoThanks for pointing this out. As a non-native speaker I always thought "firm" in firmware was referring to "company".
- rkangel 6y agoFirmware is usually used for something that's software like, but lower level. For example, the designs we build usually involve electronics, an FPGA, and a 'normal' processor. It's not formal terminology, but we usually refer to them as hardware (electronics), firmware (FPGA code) and software (C/Python/etc code).
- bmitc 6y agoI have always viewed hard, firm, and soft as a description of the ware's malleability. Hardware is not easily changed or updateable, if at all. Firmware is typically code deployed to stay in hardware like an EEPROM, flash, or FPGA, where it can be changed but not necessarily dynamically or easily. Software is able to be easily molded and changed.