Abstract: Initializing and configuring computer hardware with firmware stored in compressed form in nonvolatile semiconductor memory. Upon startup of the computer hardware, decompression software decompress the firmware, which is then stored in another memory. The computer hardware may be an adapter board (e.g., a graphics board connected to PCI bus), the nonvolatile semiconductor memory may be physically located on the adapter board, and the firmware may be firmware for initializing and configuring the adapter board. The decompression software may be stored in the same nonvolatile semiconductor memory as the firmware, and may be written in a machine-independent language (e.g., a Forth-based language). The compression technique used may include both run-length encoding and pattern compression, and may operate at the bit level.