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 Splitting & Combining ROM images 
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Joined: Sat Aug 10, 2019 1:13 am
Posts: 7
It surprises me how little information there is online about how to split ROM images into their LO & HI bytes.
Typically with buses 16-bits and wider, multiple 8-bit ROMs are used to cover the entire width of the bus; thus requiring the firmware binary to be split into parts.
The command line tool srec_cat can be used to do what we need:
Code:
srec_cat -o LOW.bin -binary ROM.bin -binary -split 2 0
srec_cat -o HIGH.bin -binary ROM.bin -binary -split 2 0

Bonus example: Combining the LO & HI ROM dumps back into a flat binary:
Code:
srec_cat -o ROM.bin -binary LOW.bin -binary -unsplit 2 0 HIGH.bin -binary -unsplit 2 1

For a more in depth explanation, see my site entry on the topic.


Last edited by NotArtyom on Mon Apr 27, 2020 12:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.



Sat Feb 22, 2020 11:25 am
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Joined: Tue Dec 11, 2012 8:03 am
Posts: 285
Location: California
I've used that tool at http://srecord.sourceforge.net/. It was a lifesaver.

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http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources


Sat Feb 22, 2020 7:09 pm
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Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2013 9:40 am
Posts: 2095
Location: Canada
I wrote my own tool a while ago called "split.exe" that as tested now doesn't work in 64-bit Windows. Time to upgrade it. I suspect others have found their own means to split files.
I've also a tool called "RAMBBuster" to convert a binary file into a series of "INST_xxx" definitions for an FPGA constraints file. It can swap the byte order around in the process.
Useful for setting initial block ram contents.

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Robert Finch http://www.finitron.ca


Sun Feb 23, 2020 3:08 am
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Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2013 9:40 am
Posts: 2095
Location: Canada
Updated split to Windows 64-bit and placed the source code in GitHub under the software/split folder.
split will split a file into up to eight different output binaries.

Code:
split - binary file splitting utility.
2009-2020  Robert Finch
split <filename> <option>
        Splits an input file into up to eight output files.
        <option> has two parts - a character code b,h,w,d and the number of
        output streams
        the character code indicates the output stream (file) width
        (b=byte,h=halfword (16 bits),w=word(32 bits),d=double word (64 bits)
        Example: split test.bin w4
                will treat test.bin as a series of word (32 bit) values
                and split the test.bin file into four output files (test.o0, test.o1, ...)
                from the input file.
        Input file name default extension is '.bin'.

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Sun Feb 23, 2020 4:13 am
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Joined: Mon Oct 07, 2019 2:41 am
Posts: 581
Splitting by nibbles (4 bits) might be usefull, if one had to update a machine using really old proms
say for microcode.


Mon Feb 24, 2020 6:10 pm
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