NAME

       srec_mips_flash - MIPS‐Flash file format

DESCRIPTION

       The  MIPS  SDE  tool chain has a convert program that is able to output this format.  I have no idea what
       reads it, some kind of flash programmer I suppose.

   Format
       The file must start with '!R' to reset the state machine.  White space appears to be ignored,  except  as
       it serves to separate tokens.

       Data  is  presented as 32‐bit hexadecimal numbers, in the normal big‐endian text number format.  To write
       them to memory, you have to know if the target is big‐endian or little‐endian. for little endian targets,
       reverse the order of the bytes in this number.

       The eight bytes following a '>' are a sort of comment.  The SDE code reads like they are displayed in the
       flash programmer as a kind of progress indicator.

       The number following '@' is a new address for the following data.

       Each segment must be erased before it can be written, this is done with the '!E' command.   Each  segment
       is assumed to be 128kB in size.

       Special segments must unlocked (with the '!C' command) and locked again (with the '!S' command).

       This file format contains no checksum mechanism.

   Command Line Options
       This  format  is  specified using one of the -Mips‐Flash‐Big_Endian or -Mips‐Flash‐Little_Endian options.
       The endian‐ness must be specified on the command line, because there is nothing in the file  contents  to
       indicate the endian‐ness of the data it contains.

   Size Multiplier
       In general, binary data will expand in sized by approximately 2.3 times when represented with this format
       (worse if you use shorter lines).

EXAMPLE

       Here is an example MIPS‐Flash file.  It contains the data “Hello, World” to be loaded  at  bytes  address
       0x0000 (but remember, the file contents are always multiples of four bytes).
              !R
              >00000xxx @00000000 !E
              @00000000
              >00000000
              48656C6C 6F2C2057 6F726C64 210A0000
              >#DL_DONE
              >FINISHED

COPYRIGHT

       srec_cat version 1.64
       Copyright  (C)  1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,
       2013, 2014 Peter Miller

       The srec_cat program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details use the 'srec_cat  -VERSion  License'
       command.   This  is  free  software  and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; for
       details use the 'srec_cat -VERSion License' command.

MAINTAINER

       Scott Finneran   E‐Mail:   scottfinneran@yahoo.com.au
       Peter Miller     E‐Mail:   pmiller@opensource.org.au

COPYRIGHT

       srec_cat version 1.64
       Copyright (C) 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010,  2011,  2012,
       2013, 2014 Peter Miller

       The  srec_cat  program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details use the 'srec_cat -VERSion License'
       command.  This is free software and you are welcome to redistribute  it  under  certain  conditions;  for
       details use the 'srec_cat -VERSion License' command.

MAINTAINER

       Scott Finneran   E‐Mail:   scottfinneran@yahoo.com.au
       Peter Miller     E‐Mail:   pmiller@opensource.org.au