camera software/firmware/hardware?

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital.slr-systems (More info?)

When you speak of camera software are you just referring to the program
that comes with the camera? I guess I'm asking if it is possible to
update what the camera, itself, does by changing the programming that
controls it. I swear I'd make the question clearer if I knew what I was
talking about ;-)

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital.slr-systems (More info?)

"Puzzled" <NotAt@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:<2vnsp7F2opcg3U1@uni-berlin.de>...
> When you speak of camera software are you just referring to the program
> that comes with the camera? I guess I'm asking if it is possible to
> update what the camera, itself, does by changing the programming that
> controls it. I swear I'd make the question clearer if I knew what I was
> talking about ;-)

Short answer: firmware: what makes your camera work.
software: the apps on your PC, including that provided
when you buy your camera.

Long answer:
The term 'hardware' refers to all that physical stuff including the
microprocessors and memory and such that run the programs.

The term 'software' refers to everything from the source code (which
customers rarely, if ever, see, to the compiles/assembled
images/objects to the excutable (under an OS) code, typically in some
form of RAM memory on a computer.

'firmware' came into being sometime around the large commercialization
of ROM memory (late 60's I suppose). Software was written, compiled
and linked into an executable and then in dedicated applications
'burned' into the ROM. Since it could not be modified once
programmed, executable code on a ROM was called 'firmware'. That name
has stuck for pretty much all instances where exectuable is burned or
programmed into non-volatile memory such as ROM, EPROM, E2PROM, FLASH,
etc.

Since the advent of E2PROM and FLASH the distinction 'firmware' is not
as important as it once was, IMO, except as to notify changeable
software residing in non-volatile memory.

Cheers,
Alan.