Hardware Access
Patina components access hardware through several mechanisms, each with Rust-specific safety considerations that differ from traditional C firmware. This section covers the supported access methods, the crates Patina uses for each, and the pitfalls to avoid.
Architectural Interfaces
Various parts of Patina need to access architectural interfaces, e.g. I/O Ports on x86 or reading system registers on AArch64. Patina has consolidated generally applicable functions in the Patina SDK's arch module. Developers should prefer using interfaces from there and adding new ones as needed. However, if the architectural interface is not widely applicable, it should be contained within the module that uses it.
The goal is to limit the use of inline assembly code, particularly around interfaces that need very specific patterns to operate correctly. Instead, well used and tested interfaces provided by the SDK should be used so that safety invariants can be maintained.