There are two ways to split a wide word into consecutive memory locations in the same hex conversion utility output file:
- --order=M specifies big-endian ordering, in which the most significant part of the wide word occupies the first of the consecutive locations.
- --order=L specifies little-endian ordering, in which the least significant part of the wide word occupies the first of the consecutive locations.
By default, the utility uses little-endian format. Unless your boot loader program expects big-endian format, avoid using --order=M.
Note: When the -order Option Applies- This option applies only when you use a memory width with a value of 32 (--memwidth32). Otherwise, the hex utility does not have access to the entire 32-bit word and cannot perform the byte swapping necessary to change the endianness; --order is ignored.
- This option does not affect the way memory words are split into output files. Think of the files as a set: the set contains a least significant file and a most significant file, but there is no ordering over the set. When you list filenames for a set of files, you always list the least significant first, regardless of the --order option.