Compiler/PROCESSOR-SDK-AM335X: No image size reduction for Release build

Keith

Tool/software: TI C/C++ Compiler

Support Path: /Product/Help with Device Selection/

Hello,

As part of the processor SDK RTOS Getting Started Guide, I built the rtos_template_app project for the TMDSSK3358 starter kit board.

1. When I build the Debug configuration the generated .out file is 1,593,124 bytes. If I add a post-processing step pdkAppImageCreate to generate a bin file suitable for programming to NOR flash, the bin file size is 918,592 bytes. This seems extremely large for a simple image containing only UART, I2C, McSPI, and DSP/BIOS support. Any thoughts on that?

2. When I build the Release configuration I expected the resulting .bin file to be reduced due to higher compiler optimization level, symbols being stripped, etc. But the generated Release .out file is actually larger, at 1,594,140 bytes. And the bin file size is 918,592 bytes, the same as the Debug build.

My question, why is there no reduction in the Release image size? (what is the purpose of a Release image?)

thanks,

Keith

over 7 years ago

0 Biser Gatchev-XID over 7 years ago

TI__Guru**** 393215 points

The RTOS team have been notified. They will respond here.

0 Lalindra Jayatilleke over 7 years ago

TI__Mastermind 30365 points

Keith,

Apologies for the slow response. I have notified the compiler team to take a look at this to see why there isn't a difference in the binary size between the build profiles.

Lali

0 George Mock over 7 years ago

TI__Guru**** 249680 points

The way you measure memory usage is inaccurate. Please consider using the MODULE SUMMARY found in the linker map file. It is described in this article.

keith36119 said:
why is there no reduction in the Release image size?

The size of a .bin file is given by the expression ...

highest initialized address - lowest initialized address

In your case, I'm pretty sure there are ranges of memory that are simply unused. These ranges of memory are often called holes. The .bin format is very simple, and has no way to represent a hole, except with a string of 0 bytes the same size as the hole. For this reason, you cannot use the size of the .bin file as a way to understand how much memory your system uses.

Thanks and regards,

-George

0 Keith over 7 years ago in reply to George Mock

Intellectual 800 points

George, thanks for the explanation.

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Compiler/PROCESSOR-SDK-AM335X: No image size reduction for Release build