This is safer because the previous code assumed that the start and end
VMAs of .data and .bss were word-aligned, which is not always the case,
so the initialization code could write data outside these sections. The
ROM functions support any address boundary.
This is faster because the ROM functions are ultra optimized, using
realignment and the LDM/STM instructions, which is much better than the
previous simple loops of single word accesses.
This is smaller because the ROM functions don't require to add any code
to the target device other than simple function calls.
This makes the code simpler and more maintainable because standard
functions are not reimplemented and no assembly is used.
Note that this is also faster and smaller than the corresponding
functions from the standard string library.
Signed-off-by: Benoît Thébaudeau <benoit.thebaudeau.dev@gmail.com>
The initialization code clearing .bss is allowed to use the stack, so
the stack can not be in .bss, or this code will badly fail if it uses
the stack.
Signed-off-by: Benoît Thébaudeau <benoit.thebaudeau.dev@gmail.com>
In order to be fast, the reset_handler() function uses word accesses to
initialize the .data output section. However, most toolchains do not
automatically force the alignment of an output section LMA to use the
maximum alignment of all its input sections. Because of that, assuming
that .data contains some words, the LMA of the .data output section was
not word-aligned in some cases, resulting in an initialization performed
using slow unaligned word accesses.
This commit forces the alignment of the LMA of the .data output section
with a word boundary in order to always use fast aligned word accesses
to read the .data load area.
Note that this solution is better than using ALIGN_WITH_INPUT, both
because the latter is a new feature incompatible with older toolchains,
and because it could create a big gap between _etext and the LMA of
.data if strongly-aligned data were added to .data, although only a word
alignment is required here.
The same considerations apply to the VMA of .data. However, it is
already automatically word-aligned, both because .data contains words,
and because the end VMA of the previous output section (.socdata) is
word-aligned. Moreover, if the VMA of .data were forcibly word-aligned,
then a filled gap could appear at the beginning of this section if
strongly-aligned data were added to it, thus wasting flash memory.
Consequently, it's better not to change anything for the VMA of .data,
all the more it's very unlikely that it does not contain any word and
that the end VMA of .socdata becomes non-word-aligned, and this would
only result in a slower initialization.
Signed-off-by: Benoît Thébaudeau <benoit.thebaudeau.dev@gmail.com>
Some toolchains, like Sourcery CodeBench Lite 2013.05-23 arm-none-eabi
(http://sourcery.mentor.com/public/gnu_toolchain/arm-none-eabi/)
automatically force the alignment of an output section LMA to use the
maximum alignment of all its input sections. This toolchain uses GNU
binutils 2.23, and this automatic behavior is the same as the manual
behavior of the ALIGN_WITH_INPUT feature of GNU binutils 2.24+.
This behavior is not an issue per se, but it creates a gap between
_etext and the LMA of the .data output section if _etext does not have
the same alignment, while reset_handler() initialized this section by
copying the data from _etext to its VMA, hence an offset in the
addresses of loaded data, and missing data.
This commit fixes this issue by making reset_handler() directly use the
LMA of the .data section using LOADADDR(.data), rather than assuming
that _etext is this LMA.
Signed-off-by: Benoît Thébaudeau <benoit.thebaudeau.dev@gmail.com>
When using this code:
(int8_t)tmp102_read_temp_x100() / 100
Only the first value is casted into a int8_t type.
tmp102_read_temp_x100() returns the temperature in Celcius * 100. Most of
the time this value will be lower than -2^7 and higher than 2^7 (+/- 1.27°C).
The cast is not needed but a comment about this implicit cast has been added.
Document the URL of the older Sourcery G++ Lite 2008q3-66 arm-none-eabi
toolchain mentioned by README.md so that users can easily find it if
needed.
Signed-off-by: Benoît Thébaudeau <benoit.thebaudeau.dev@gmail.com>
