# PFES-ENG-012 — Firmware Resources

**Status:** Active  
**Knowledge Cycle Stages:** Observe, Understand

## Purpose

Map memory, tables, descriptors, buffers, persistent configuration, registers, and other stateful assets used by firmware.

## Engineering Problem

Executable routines cannot explain behavior without the resources they read and modify.

## Historical Engineering Evolution

Emulator work repeatedly showed that SRAM state, descriptor windows, timers, media flags, and persistent buffers can be as important as code.

## Engineering Discoveries

- Data frequently defines behavior.
- Resource organization reveals subsystem interaction.

## Architectural Decisions

- Preserve observed layouts separately from inferred meaning.
- Trace resource use behaviorally.

## Knowledge Produced

- Memory maps
- Descriptor layouts
- Buffer roles
- Persistent-state models

## Knowledge Consumed

- Topology
- Architecture
- Execution traces

## Current Engineering State

Current work includes ROM, SRAM, DRAM, stacks, command buffers, descriptors, MMIO registers, tables, and media/session state.

## Engineering Lessons

- Shared state is often the hidden dependency behind apparent functions.

## Negative Knowledge

Project Frankenstein no longer assumes:

- Code alone defines capability.
- Unknown data can be ignored safely.

## Current Implementations

- Stage 5 evidence
- Emulator watchpoints
- Hardware memory captures

## Future Implementations

- Automatic resource classification
- Cross-family resource matching

## Open Questions

To be expanded during engineering review.

## Why This Chapter Exists

Accurate emulation and capability engineering require the state around the code.
