hp120

[piranhaleg]

Can some one explain what firmware is?

[BKDotCom]

It's the "internal software" that a piece of hardware uses.

In the case of a device like a mp3 player, the firmware handles everthing from accessing the hard-drive (or flash memory), the decompressing decoding of the mp3 stream, and even the user interface.

That's my very simplistic answer.

[Ioman]

Here is a definition I found on Techweb's site:

A category of memory chips that hold their content without electrical power and include ROM, PROM, EPROM and EEPROM technologies. Firmware becomes "hard software" when holding program code.

RAM is automatically erased when the system is powered down, but EPROM which is electrically programmed read only memory will store the information. Image software stored on a memory ship instead of a hard drive or other media. So in this case, downloading firmware for the HP120 will re-program the internal software of the player.