[En-Nut-Discussion] Function placed in iram

[Bernd Walter]

On Wed, May 12, 2010 at 07:08:24PM +0200, Andre Riesberg wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> I try to place a function in the internal RAM of an AT91SAM7SE512 (the 
> board is the EIR).
> 
> First I add to linker script (at91sam7se512_rom.ld) this lines:
> 
>   .iram :
>   {
>     *(.iram)
>     . = ALIGN(4);
>   } > iram
> 
> My test function looks like this:
> 
> static uint32_t __attribute__ ((section(".iram"),used)) Test(void)
> {
>   return (uint32_t) &Test;
> }
> 
> Compile and link are successful. But OpenOCD give me this message:
> 
> writing 262144 bytes only - as image section is 2097164 bytes and bank 
> is only 262144 bytes
> 
> My application works correct, the result of function Test() is 0x200000.
> The generated .bin file is more then 2MByte big and mostly filled with 
> 0x00's. It looks that the complete area from the end of my application 
> up to the Test() function is filled with  0x00's. 
> 
> When I place then Test() function in then .data section the generated 
> .bin file is much smaller and works correct too (the result of Test() is 
> now 0x20000000).
> 
> I think with the attribute .data the Test() function is placed in the 
> flash and copy during startup to the external RAM.
> 
> Whats the way to have the same functionality with .iram ?

The AT keyword in the loader script is the key to get the it relocated
into flash starting at __extext rom address.
It gets later copied to ram in arch/arm/init/crtat91sam7sex_rom.S.
The problem might be to setup an additional __etext, since you must
know the size of data as an offset - there is surely a way, but I'm
not an ld-script exptert.

-- 
B.Walter <bernd at bwct.de> http://www.bwct.de
Modbus/TCP Ethernet I/O Baugruppen, ARM basierte FreeBSD Rechner uvm.