Editing Bootstrapping (section)

====Software loading and execution====
{{Main | Booting | Reboot (computing)}}
Booting is the process of starting a computer, specifically with regard to starting its software. The process involves a chain of stages, in which at each stage, a relatively small and simple program loads and then executes the larger, more complicated program of the next stage. It is in this sense that the computer "pulls itself up by its bootstraps"; i.e., it improves itself by its own efforts. Booting is a chain of events that starts with execution of hardware-based procedures and may then hand off to [[firmware]] and software which is loaded into [[main memory]]. Booting often involves processes such as performing [[power-on self-test|self-tests]], loading [[computer configuration|configuration]] settings, loading a [[BIOS]], [[resident monitor]]s, a [[hypervisor]], an [[operating system]], or [[utility software]].

The computer term bootstrap began as a metaphor in the 1950s. In computers, pressing a bootstrap button caused a [[hardwired control|hardwired program]] to read a bootstrap program from an input unit. The computer would then execute the bootstrap program, which caused it to read more program instructions. It became a self-sustaining process that proceeded without external help from manually entered instructions. As a computing term, bootstrap has been used since at least 1953.<ref>{{Cite journal |year = 1953 |title = The System Design of the IBM Type 701 Computer |author = Buchholz, Werner |journal = Proceedings of the I.R.E. |volume = 41 |issue = 10 |page = 1273 |doi=10.1109/jrproc.1953.274300 |s2cid = 51673999 }}</ref>