What is Firmware?

What is Firmware?

The firmware initiates the process to start the computer and is involved at the very end of the process when the computer is shut down.

  • Firmware’s are stored in ROM which is a type of non-volatile (permanent) memory used in computers to store firmware software’s. It’s very small memory used just to store firmware.
  • In modern computers, you might heard of BIOS or UEFI. These are firmware’s.

How does a computer starts?

This process is also known as ‘Computer Boot Process’. Here’s a step-by-step process:

Step 1: Power On

You pressed the power button on your computer.

Step 2: Firmware Initialization

The firmware stored in the ROM (BIOS or UEFI) is the first thing that runs when you turn on your computer.

Step 3: Power-On Self-Test (POST)

The firmware checks and initializes hardware components like the processor (CPU), memory (RAM) to make sure everything is working fine.

Step 4: Boot Loader

After POST, the firmware looks for the operating system on your computer’s hard drive (HDD or SSD), but it can also look on a CD, DVD, USB drive, or network location.

Step 5: Loading Operating System to RAM

Once the boot loader finds the operating system, it loads it into the RAM.

Step 6: Transfer Control

Once the operating system is fully loaded into RAM, the firmware transfers control of the computer to the operating system. The operating system takes over and starts necessary software’s and applications. The computer is now ready to use.