Tiny6410 boards device tree

Dear all,

Planning to actively work on tiny6410, I have following questions which are
of great importance for me before start:

1- How different IO peripherals are introduced to the current linux kernel
in Tiny6410 board; Is it hard-coded between the lines of the kernel codes
or there is a DTS (device tree) defined and will be loaded into the kernel.

2- To just start, do we need to have a BDI hardware debugger? If yes, in
what situations it might be helpful?

Many thanks