Firmware Development
Device software that survives the field: drivers, RTOS, secure boot, and updates that never brick a fleet.
What is firmware development?
Firmware development is writing the low-level software permanently resident on a device — the code that boots the processor, drives the peripherals, and implements the product's behavior. We develop firmware for microcontroller and processor-based products, from drivers and RTOS integration through secure bootloaders and over-the-air update systems.
The field is the real test environment
On a bench, firmware mostly works. In the field it meets brownouts, EMI, users who unplug things mid-write, and networks that vanish for a week. The difference between a product that survives all that and one that generates support calls is firmware engineered on the assumption that everything eventually fails.
Ours ships with watchdogs that actually recover, storage that tolerates power loss halfway through a write, update mechanisms that cannot brick the device, and logging that tells you what happened when a unit comes back. None of this appears on a feature list. All of it appears in the warranty rate.
Updates are architecture, not a patch
The moment a product ships, its firmware becomes the hardest code in the world to change — unless the ability to change it was designed in. A robust update system needs a bootloader with a fallback slot, image signing so only your code runs, version management for a mixed fleet, and a plan for the unit that lost power halfway through an update.
We build that path as part of the original firmware architecture. Products keep improving years after they ship, and security issues get fixed in the field instead of in a recall.
Firmware vs embedded software vs application software: what is what?
The three terms name different layers of the same stack. Firmware lives in a device's non-volatile memory and touches the hardware directly. Embedded software is everything running inside the device, firmware included. Application software runs on general-purpose computers and phones, far from the hardware.
| Firmware | Embedded software | Application software | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where it lives | In flash on the device, closest to the silicon | Anywhere inside the device, drivers to UI | On phones, desktops, and servers |
| Scope | Boot, drivers, hardware control | The device's whole software stack | User-facing features and business logic |
| Hardware ties | Written for one specific board | Tied to the device family | Hardware-independent |
| Typical stack | C, C++, assembly at the edges | C/C++ plus RTOS or Linux components | Swift, Kotlin, JavaScript, Python |
| Updated by | Bootloader or OTA image swap | Package or image updates | App stores and installers |
Firmware work we take on
From board bring-up to release build
- 01
Specification & Interfaces
Behavior, memory map, and protocols get written down first: what every message, mode, and failure response is supposed to do.
- 02
Core Development
Drivers, middleware, and application logic, built incrementally and running on real hardware from the first week.
- 03
Hardware Integration
Firmware and board are debugged together — timing, power modes, and peripherals verified with instruments rather than assumptions.
- 04
Test & Hardening
Unit tests, static analysis, fault injection, and recovery paths for watchdog and brownout events. Field failures are designed out here.
- 05
Release & Updates
Versioned binaries, manufacturing programming images, and a bootloader with an update path, so the fleet can be improved safely after it ships.
What ships with the code
The firmware environment
Firmware Development FAQs
Firmware is the code stored in a device's non-volatile memory, closest to the hardware. Embedded software is the broader category: all software running inside a device, including an operating system and applications above the firmware. On a small microcontroller product the two are effectively the same thing; on a Linux-based product they are distinct layers.
Yes. The update system is designed into the firmware architecture from the start: signed images, a fallback slot so a failed update cannot brick a unit, and secure boot chains on parts that support them.
Yes, we regularly write firmware for boards we did not design. Send the schematics and a couple of samples and we take it from there.
It tracks scope more than lines of code. Bring-up and drivers for a straightforward MCU product might be a few weeks of engineering; a connected product with an RTOS, OTA updates, and safety requirements is several months. We quote from a feature list and the hardware's maturity — unstable hardware is the most common hidden cost.
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