Format

The -format option can be used to specify a particular variant of INHX format or adjust maximum record length. The usage of this option is:

-format=Type [,Length]

where:

• Type specifies a particular INHX format to generate.
• Length is optional and sets the maximum number of bytes per data record. A valid length is between 1 and 16 decimal, with 16 being the default.

Consider the case of a bootloader trying to download an INHX32 file, which fails because it cannot process the extended address records that are part of the INHX32 standard. This bootloader can only program data addressed within the range 0 to 64k and any data in the HEX file outside of this range can be safely disregarded. In this case, by generating the HEX file in INHX8M format the operation might succeed. The Hexmate option to do this would be -FORMAT=INHX8M.

Now consider if the same bootloader also required every data record to contain exactly 8 bytes of data. This is possible by combining the -format with -fill options. Appropriate use of -fill can ensure that there are no gaps in the data for the address range being programmed. This will satisfy the minimum data length requirement. To set the maximum length of data records to 8 bytes, just modify the previous option to become -format=INHX8M,8.

The possible types that are supported by this option are listed in Table 1. Note that INHX032 is not an actual INHX format. Selection of this type generates an INHX32 file, but will also initialize the upper address information to zero. This is a requirement of some device programmers.