Re: how to place firmware in ROM

Altera_Forum · ‎03-02-2005

I use NIOSII IDE ( Version: 1.1.0 Build: 137 ) to write c software for a design consisting of SRAM, peripherals and a PCI-Interface. Booting is done via EPCS and a short programme initializes all peripherals and PCI. Now the SRAM is mapped into PCI space to load the actual software for NIOS by a linux host. In the meantime NIOS runs in internal ROM (in a wait loop) until download has finished.

How can I force the compiler / linker to place one function into this internal ROM? Adding __attribute__ ((section (".waitrom"))) doesn't work with functions. It's no problem with variables and constants so I've created an const array filled with assemby code. But how can I do this with a standard c-function?

Mike

Altera_Forum · ‎03-02-2005

You can do it with functions, but you must put the attribute on the declaration, not the definition. So your code would look something like this:

void function(void) __attribute__ ((section (".memory_name")));
void function(void)
{
    /* stuff */
}

Of course the declaration will often be in a header file.

Altera_Forum · ‎03-02-2005

wombat,

next time I'll ask you earlier.

Thanks for your help.

Mike

Altera_Forum · ‎03-18-2005

Hi

This works fine for me as well, but when I try to place a variable in the same memory, I get an error about causing a section type conflict.

Just to make clear: I have a program running from sdram. Then I want to have a variable in onchip memory as well as another function in onchip memory. Here is the code

int var __attribute__ ((section (".onchip_ram")))=0;
int func(void) __attribute__ ((section (".onchip_ram")));

Is there any known problem placing both of these in the same memory ?

Nir