Minidrivrutin

Minidrivrutin is a term used in Swedish computing discussions to describe a small, purpose-built device driver routine designed to manage a single peripheral function or sensor. It is typically a minimal module that exposes a narrow API to higher layers while encapsulating hardware access and timing-sensitive operations. The concept emphasizes modularity and low resource usage, suitable for embedded systems, microcontrollers, or situations where a full-featured driver would be unnecessary. The term is not standardized and may be used differently in various projects.

A minidrivrutin usually interacts with hardware through standard interfaces such as GPIO, I2C, SPI, UART, or memory-mapped IO, and can run in kernel space or user space depending on platform and safety requirements. It focuses on deterministic behavior, low latency, and simple state machines.

Architectural approaches vary; some implement as a small kernel module or RTOS driver, others as a user-space daemon or library. It often provides a compact API with basic operations like init, read, write, and status, and is designed to be composed with other drivers or middleware to build a complete device stack.

Development considerations include portability across hardware platforms, careful handling of concurrency and interrupts, robust error reporting, and thorough testing. Documentation, versioning, and clear API boundaries are important to prevent resource conflicts when multiple components use the same hardware interface.

Typical contexts include resource-constrained environments, hobbyist projects, or scenarios where a targeted driver suffices for a single function such as reading a sensor, controlling a LED, or managing a simple communication peripheral.

See also: device driver, embedded system, kernel module, RTOS driver.