Low level input/output

The Input/Ouput functions include safety checks such as making sure a pin is set to OUTPUT when doing a digitalWrite() or that the pin is not being used for a timer function. These safety measures represent good coding and system design practice.

There are times when the fastest possible input/output operations are crucial to an applications performance. The SPI, UART (Serial) or I2C hardware are examples of low level performance-oriented devices. There are, however, times when these devices may not be suitable or available. For example, One-wire support is done in software, not hardware.

In order to provide the fastest possible bit-oriented I/O, the normal safety checks must be skipped. As such, please be aware that the programmer is responsible for proper planning and use of the low level I/O functions.

Prior to using the following low-level functions, pinMode() must be used to configure the target pin.