Firmware is software installed on a small memory chip on a hardware device. Firmware allows hardware like cameras and smartphones to be updated.

In computing, firmware is a computer program that is "embedded" in a hardware device and is an essential part of the hardware. [1] It is sometimes called embedded software. An example is a microcontroller, a part of the microprocessor that tells the microprocessor what actions to take.

Firmware is software that's embedded in a piece of hardware. You can think of it simply as "software for hardware." However, software is different from firmware, so the two are not interchangeable terms.