Abstract: A Plug-in equipped updateable firmware includes a number of value added software or “plug-in” modules stored in association with a firmware module within a non-volatile memory device, such as FLASH. In one embodiment, the plug-in and firmware modules are stored in a compressed form within the FLASH, whereupon during boot-up they are extracted into random access memory (RAM). The firmware is extracted into the RAM at a predetermined memory address, whereas each plug-in is extracted into the RAM at a re-allocable memory address. In one embodiment, the memory address associated with each extracted plug-in is stored in a table for reference by the firmware. When the firmware calls a function of a plug-in stored within RAM, the firmware references the table to locate the memory address for the extracted plug-in, and initialization code within the plug-in returns to the firmware a pointer to the function.