TMS320F28379D: Question of using FlashAPI on 28379D - pad the unfilled bytes when programming flash?

Besides above, I also have question regarding the crespondancy between the hex file vs. the byte content in the Flash memory.

I generated intel hex from a ledblink project, and also opened the Memory view within CCS under debug mode of the exact project. 

Below is the figure showing the two:

In the left is the generated hex file. Taking the 2nd line (whch contains data) as example:

:020000004A892B

according to the intel hex file format definition, my understanding is, from the begining to end, 02 stands for the number of bytes; 0000 is the address (to be combined with the base address in the 1st line, to form the 32bit address 000A0000); then 00 stands for a record of DATA, 4A 89 are the data which are 2 bytes, and 2B is CRC.

while in the memory view, as you can see in the RHS, at address 0x0000A000, it shows 

004A 0B89 .....

I believe the 4A 89 are the data reflected in the line of the Hex file, but I am not sure why the 00, 0B was there, and where they comes from or recorded. If continue to look at data in rest of lines of the .hex,  and compare that to the memory view, it also same pattern.

How to understand this, and how we should program the flash correctly? (I assume the flash programmed should match exactly what shown in the memory view, correct me if I am wrong.)

Thanks for advice.

Regards,

Wei 

Wei,

Yes, each of the partial 128-bit memory aligned data should be padded with all 1s if you pass the data length as 8 for the program command when using Fapi_AutoEccGeneration.  

Hope all of the initialized sections are aligned on 128-bit address in your linker command file using ALIGN(8).

Thanks and regards,
Vamsi

Thanks Vamsi. 

Beside, I realized that the generated hex files actually has 2:  app.hex and app.i01 (taking intel hex for example). By compare their content with the memory view, it's easy to find that, the 2 files contain the high / low byte, respectively. 

Not sure if I missed something, Is there some settings in the hex output format option or so, that I can let CCS generate only 1 hex file to contain the image, not splitting into 2?

Regards,

Wei

Hi Wei,

What is the exact command that you used to generate the hex file?

Thanks and regards,
Vamsi

Hey Vamsi,

I generated the hex file with the CCS built-in:

And then, found the 2 files under the <build_configuration> folder: (.hex and .i01)

Regards,

Wei

Hi Wei,

We can review and get back to you next week.

Thanks and regards,

Vamsi

Thanks Vamsi. Yep I ahve page0 and page1 both used in the linker command file.

The 2 separate hex files is not a concern to me now. But for my curiousity, for example, my linker command file's page0/1 allocation looks looks like:

So if I want to generate single hex file, I need to fit all sections currently allocated in PAGE 1 to RAM/Flash in PAGE 0, for example:

   .stack              : > RAMM1       PAGE = 1

modify to things like

   .stack              : > RAMGS0     PAGE = 0 

is my understanding correct? Thanks,

Regards,,

Wei

MEMORY
{
PAGE 0:    /* Program Memory */
          /* Memory (RAM/FLASH) blocks can be moved to PAGE1 for data allocation */
          /* BEGIN is used for the "boot to Flash" bootloader mode   */

   BEGIN           	: origin = 0x080000, length = 0x000002
   RAMM0           	: origin = 0x000122, length = 0x0002DE
   RAMD0           	: origin = 0x00B000, length = 0x000800
   RAMLS03          : origin = 0x008000, length = 0x002000
/*	RAMLS1           : origin = 0x008800, length = 0x000800
    RAMLS2           : origin = 0x009000, length = 0x000800
    RAMLS3           : origin = 0x009800, length = 0x000800 */
   RAMLS4      		: origin = 0x00A000, length = 0x000800
   RESET           	: origin = 0x3FFFC0, length = 0x000002
  
	/* Flash sectors */
   FLASHA           : origin = 0x080002, length = 0x001FFE	/* on-chip Flash */
   FLASHB           : origin = 0x082000, length = 0x002000	/* on-chip Flash */
    ...
....

PAGE 1 :   /* Data Memory */
         /* Memory (RAM/FLASH) blocks can be moved to PAGE0 for program allocation */

   BOOT_RSVD       : origin = 0x000002, length = 0x000121     /* Part of M0, BOOT rom will use this for stack */
   RAMM1           : origin = 0x000400, length = 0x0003F8     /* on-chip RAM block M1 */
//   RAMM1_RSVD      : origin = 0x0007F8, length = 0x000008     /* Reserve and do not use for code as per the errata advisory "Memory: Prefetching Beyond Valid Memory" */
    RAMD1           : origin = 0x00B800, length = 0x000800

    RAMLS5      : origin = 0x00A800, length = 0x000800

	RAMGS0          : origin = 0x00C000, length = 0x001000
	RAMGS1          : origin = 0x00D000, length = 0x001000
	....
	
}

SECTIONS
{

   /* Allocate program areas: */
   .cinit              : > FLASHD      PAGE = 0
   .pinit              : > FLASHD,     PAGE = 0
   .text               : >> FLASHD | FLASHE      PAGE = 0
   codestart           : > BEGIN	PAGE = 0

#ifdef __TI_COMPILER_VERSION__
    #if __TI_COMPILER_VERSION__ >= 15009000
        GROUP
        {
            .TI.ramfunc
            { -l F021_API_F2837xD_FPU32.lib}

        } LOAD = FLASHD,
          RUN  = RAMLS03,
          LOAD_START(_RamfuncsLoadStart),
          LOAD_SIZE(_RamfuncsLoadSize),
          LOAD_END(_RamfuncsLoadEnd),
          RUN_START(_RamfuncsRunStart),
          RUN_SIZE(_RamfuncsRunSize),
          RUN_END(_RamfuncsRunEnd),
          PAGE = 0
    #else
        GROUP
        {
            ramfuncs
            { -l F021_API_F2837xD_FPU32.lib}

        } LOAD = FLASHD,
          RUN  = RAMLS03,
          LOAD_START(_RamfuncsLoadStart),
          LOAD_SIZE(_RamfuncsLoadSize),
          LOAD_END(_RamfuncsLoadEnd),
          RUN_START(_RamfuncsRunStart),
          RUN_SIZE(_RamfuncsRunSize),
          RUN_END(_RamfuncsRunEnd),
          PAGE = 0
    #endif
#endif

   /* Allocate uninitalized data sections: */
   .stack              : > RAMM1       PAGE = 1
   .ebss               : >> RAMLS5 | RAMGS0 | RAMGS1       PAGE = 1
   .esysmem            : > RAMLS5       PAGE = 1

   /* Initalized sections go in Flash */
   .econst             : >> FLASHF | FLASHG       PAGE = 0
   .switch             : > FLASHD      PAGE = 0

   .reset              : > RESET,     PAGE = 0, TYPE = DSECT /* not used, */

   Filter_RegsFile     : > RAMGS0,	   PAGE = 1

   SHARERAMGS0		: > RAMGS0,		PAGE = 1
   SHARERAMGS1		: > RAMGS1,		PAGE = 1

   /* Flash Programming Buffer */
   BufferDataSection : > RAMD1, PAGE = 1, ALIGN(8)

}