00_overview/scope_fw_sw.md

(draft)

Scope: Firmware & Software Review#

This review examines the firmware and software ecosystems used by scientific instruments.
While the hardware review focuses on physical measurement behavior, this layer clarifies how digital systems:

• shape measurement interpretation
• introduce inference layers
• compensate for drift
• stabilize or destabilize regimes
• create new sources of fragility

Firmware and software are now inseparable from modern instruments.
Understanding their regimes helps learners see where results are direct, assumption‑heavy, or fragile.

This review mirrors the hardware structure:

• Green‑zone: stable, coherent, low‑drift FW/SW
• Yellow‑zone: functional but assumption‑dependent
• Red‑zone: inference‑heavy, substrate‑sensitive, or fragile

The goal is clarity, not completeness.