Firmware refers to devices that combine software and hardware.
This firmware will also provide automatic network configuration, which will enable large-scale FireWire networks. The two-port chip will also be able to overcome the problem of having to reset the bus each time a new device is added to the network. Currently, FireWire networks can include as many as 63 devices, but for each additional device that is added, the bus has to be reset. This resetting process interrupts anything that the user is working on. For example, if a user is transferring digital video to a computer and wanted to hook up a second camera to the network, the user would have to stop everything to hook up the second camera and then restart.