SPRUI03E June 2015 – January 2023
The MEMORY directive identifies ranges of memory that are physically present in the target system and can be used by a program. Each range has several characteristics:
When you use the MEMORY directive, be sure to identify all memory ranges that are available for the program to access at run time. Memory defined by the MEMORY directive is configured; any memory that you do not explicitly account for with MEMORY is unconfigured. The linker does not place any part of a program into unconfigured memory. You can represent nonexistent memory spaces by simply not including an address range in a MEMORY directive statement.
The MEMORY directive is specified in a command file by the word MEMORY (uppercase), followed by a list of memory range specifications enclosed in braces. The MEMORY directive in The MEMORY Directive defines a system that has 4K bytes of fast external memory at address 0x0000 0000, 2K bytes of slow external memory at address 0x0000 1000 and 4K bytes of slow external memory at address 0x1000 0000. It also demonstrates the use of memory range expressions as well as start/end/size address operators (see Section 9.6.4.3).
/********************************************************/
/* Sample command file with MEMORY directive */
/********************************************************/
file1.c.obj file2.c.obj /* Input files */
--output_file=prog.out /* Options */
#define BUFFER 0
MEMORY
{
FAST_MEM (RX): origin = 0x00000000 length = 0x00001000 + BUFFER
SLOW_MEM (RW): origin = end(FAST_MEM) length = 0x00001800 - size(FAST_MEM)
EXT_MEM (RX): origin = 0x10000000 length = size(FAST_MEM)
| The general syntax for the MEMORY directive is: | |
| MEMORY | |
| { | |
| name 1 [( attr )] : origin = expression , length = expr [, fill = constant] | |
| . | |
| . | |
| name n [( attr )] : origin = expr , length = expr [, fill = constant] | |
| } | |
| name | names a memory range. A memory name can be one to 64 characters; valid characters include A-Z, a-z, $, ., and _. The names have no special significance to the linker; they simply identify memory ranges. Memory range names are internal to the linker and are not retained in the output file or in the symbol table. All memory ranges must have unique names and must not overlap. | |
| attr | specifies one to four attributes associated with the named range. Attributes are optional; when used, they must be enclosed in parentheses. Attributes restrict the allocation of output sections into certain memory ranges. If you do not use any attributes, you can allocate any output section into any range with no restrictions. Any memory for which no attributes are specified (including all memory in the default model) has all four attributes. Valid attributes are: | |
| R | specifies that the memory can be read. | |
| W | specifies that the memory can be written to. | |
| X | specifies that the memory can contain executable code. | |
| I | specifies that the memory can be initialized. | |
| origin | specifies the starting address of a memory range; enter as origin, org, or o. The value, specified in bytes, is a 32-bit integer constant expression, which can be decimal, octal, or hexadecimal. | |
| length | specifies the length of a memory range; enter as length, len, or l. The value, specified in bytes, is a 32-bit integer constant expression, which can be decimal, octal, or hexadecimal. | |
| fill | specifies a fill character for the memory range; enter as fill or f. Fills are optional. The value is an integer constant and can be decimal, octal, or hexadecimal. The fill value is used to fill areas of the memory range that are not allocated to a section. (See Section 9.6.9.3 for virtual filling of memory ranges when using Error Correcting Code (ECC).) | |
Filling Memory Ranges: If you specify fill values for large memory ranges, your output file will be very large because filling a memory range (even with 0s) causes raw data to be generated for all unallocated blocks of memory in the range.
The following example specifies a memory range with the R and W attributes and a fill constant of 0FFFFFFFFh:
MEMORY
{
RFILE (RW) : o = 0x00000020, l = 0x00001000, f = 0xFFFFFFFF
}You normally use the MEMORY directive in conjunction with the SECTIONS directive to control placement of output sections. For more information about the SECTIONS directive, see Section 9.6.5.