ABLE is usually stored in non-volatile memory. On boards on which ABLE runs there are two types of flash memory in common usage. These are NOR and NAND devices. The NOR devices are relatively small, perhaps 16 or 32Mb, and ABLE is executed directly from them. The NAND devices are much larger, a gigabit or more, and behave more like a disc drive. ABLE stored on NAND devices must be copied into system RAM and executed from there.

Upgrading ABLE on these two memory types is described in seperate sections, the user must assure themselves they are using the correct procedure for their board. Some boards have both forms of memory and care must be taken to overwite the correct memory device.

All systems (except those lacking an MMU such as the EB675001DIP) have the ability to use the reloader tool to load a copy of ABLE into RAM, instead of writing directly to flash. This is a recommended step to ensure the new version of ABLE is suitable before making the update permenant.