Eli5: Do processors in computers and smartphones have their own firmware? Are they programmed in Assembly?
In: Technology
Every processor out there is technically programmed in assembly, because assembly is essentially a one to one with machine code. Machine code is the instructions in 1’s and 0’s that are loaded into memory that the processor executes. Every single program that runs on a modern processor, regardless of language, is compiled into machine code to run on the processor.
Processors are hardware components. Literally at the nano level they are sets of transistors and traces that allow signals to get passed around. Modern processors are extremely complex, including multiple caches ok the processor to be able to reduce latency associated with getting information from your main memory (RAM) and your storage (hdd, ssd, etc.)
As far as I’ve learned there is no firmware directly on the processor, but the motherboard it is connected to does. The firmware on the motherboard is really just a set of how to run the processor, the operating system then has drivers that interface the operating system to the motherboard firmware.
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