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Common Download Format

Each processor type may have a different compiler (linker) output format, and some processor types may have a ROM-ed embedded boot-loader (firmware), with its own requirements on the download format. The SynDEx common download format encapsulates the details and the differences of the compiler output formats, and of the boot-loaders download formats; it is composed as follows: The first executive forwarded to a descendant being received by that descendant's boot-loader, that executive must be sent WITHOUT its four bytes prefix; the following executives sent to the same descendant being forwarded by that descendant's executive, they must be sent WITH their four bytes prefix.

The sequence of bytes itself must follow the format expected by the destination boot-loader. Therefore a linker post-processor must be developped for each processor type, to translate the linker output file into the SynDEx common dowload format described above. All the post-processors' outputs will be concatenated by the makefile into a unique contiguous image (file), that the root executive will use as source.


next up previous contents
Next: Downloader Macros Up: SynDEx Downloader Specification Previous: Boot and Download Process   Contents
Julien Forget 2003-03-21