Re: [avr-gcc-list] Constants in flash

[Bas Laarhoven]

Torsten Landschoff wrote:

> Hi *, 
>
> In writing a boot loader for the ATmega128 I run into the following
> problem: I have a function taking some kind of "format string" to 
> describe the intended behaviour. I declare those as being in program 
> memory. 
>
> Because of that they end up in the highest 8kB of program memory. But I 
> want to access them from program code. Problem is: When I take the
> address I only get the lower 16 bits:
>
>    #include <avr/pgmspace.h>
>    void    f(void)
>    {
>             static const char format[] PROGMEM = "silly example";
>             uint32_t address = (uint32_t) format;
>             char first = pgm_read_byte_far(address);
>    }
>
>  
Hi Torsten,

You've been bitten by two different problems at once:
First of all, the sign extend you did notice.
This can easily be avoided by adding an (unsigned) cast before the 
(uint32_t) cast,
resulting in "(uint32_t) (unsigned) format".

Second and worse: The pointer contains only the lowest 16-bits of a byte 
address.
This is a compiler limitation and I haven't yet found a way to pass the 
17th address
bit to the application (even though the symbol in the object file 
contains all 17 bits).
If you have some extra information you may be able to infer the
value of the 17th bit (e.g. with code in the bootloader) and offset the 
address variable.

Hope this helps,

Cheers,
Bas

> This ironically generates working code, which looks like this:
>
>   6:simple.c      ****         uint32_t address = (uint32_t) format;
>  91                    .LM2:
>  92 0014 80E0                  ldi r24,lo8(format.0)
>  93 0016 90E0                  ldi r25,hi8(format.0)
>  94 0018 AA27                  clr r26
>  95 001a 97FD                  sbrc r25,7
>  96 001c A095                  com r26
>  97 001e BA2F                  mov r27,r26
> [register shuffling omitted]
> 117                    /* #APP */
> 118 0040 ABBF                  out 59, r26
> 119 0042 FC01                  movw r30, r24
> 120 0044 8791                  elpm r24, Z+
> 121
> 122                    /* #NOAPP */
>
> For some reason the compiler thinks the address is signed which leads to 
> working code (as long as the format is in the upper or lower 32kByte of
> Flash). 
>
> So it seems that in my case I don't have a problem. On the other hand I wonder
> how I could infer the flash location of a so declared constant. Any hints?
> BTW: Replacing the cast in the assignment to address with (uint16_t) leads
> to non-working code in my case.
>
>
> Greetings
>
>         Torsten
>
>
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