How does firmware work?

Im trying to download psp games to my psp for free but everytime I search for it on google or something it say sumthn about firmware. please be very specific about how it work, where do I get it from, and how to use, all the information I need to know...

please! Thanks,-TaylorBug

the last piece of firmware I upgraded was for a geforce 6800GT goes like hell and this was 4 years back...

Firmware is like a motherboard BIOS and you should never attempt to update unless you know exactly what your doing because you can cause more harm than good.

As far as I can c the latest sony psp firmware is at version 6.10: this is from the official psp site

http://www.us.playstation.com/Support/SystemUpdates/PSP

from there you have 3 ways to update... network, pc and umd.
Read the instructions carefully before doing it.
my advice is dont

taken from wikipedia:
firmware is a term often used to denote the fixed, usually rather small, programs and data structures that internally control various electronic devices.

So its basic code that a piece of hardware uses that tells it what to do. A lot of times with the PSP, you have to update your firmware to a certain version to run a game. Usually when that happens, tho the game comes with the update on the UMD. Other wise there is an option in your PSP to check for updates, only works tho if you have it hooked up to a wifi connection. Then it will download the latest firmware from Sony if yours isn't up to date. You can also manual download it on your computer, load it on your PSP, and do it that way. Check out sony's website that clawjaw linked for me info.

Now if you are trying to run something like homebrew on your PSP you need to have an older version of the firmware that they have cracked. I have read ways to downgrade your firmware to a past version, but that can be risky, and have heard of people bricking there PSP.

You are left with more or less the option to run legit UMD games or stay with older firmware and run emulators for NES, SNES and stuff like that.

Hope that helps