English Language Learners Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for speakers of other languages learning English. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Is there a word for the software critical for and specific to a weapon system?
Weapon system have software that's critical for their functioning, but what do we call it or them? I am thinking of the specific software that a weapon system has and not the operating system or kernel, because it's shared across a variety of weapon system and not specific to a particular weapon system.
Computer software that is designed to be run on a specific machine or device (such as a weapon), especially a machine that would not normally be thought of as a "computer" is called embedded software.
Embedded software is essential for the running of that machine, and is normally specialised for the particular hardware that it is running on. For example a "smart bomb" will have an onboard chip that runs embedded software to control the flight and timing of the bomb and increase the chance of it hitting a particular target.
Embedded software may run with an OS (called an embedded OS). For example Linux provides "Embedded Linux", used in set-top-boxes, networking equipment and elsewhere. Embedded software can also be designed to run without a separate OS.
Embedded software designed for weapons is specifically "military embedded software"
