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 buns 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 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 APIs, 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 macOS.
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's sent over an HDMI or display
port 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 to change the brightness on your monitor or whatever,
what you're seeing there is the firmware acting as the monitor's entire operating system.
So even very simple devices like TV remote control need firmware to turn your button
meshes 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 from other boards 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's 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 a 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 failsafe, 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. And 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. Can you imagine?
I can't, I have no idea where we were going with this. So thanks for watching guys, like, dislike, check out our other videos, and leave a comment
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