Intel HEX-record Format

INTRODUCTION
Intel's Hex-record format allows program or data files to be encoded in a printable (ASCII) format. This allows viewing of the object file with standard tools and easy file transfer from one computer to another, or between a host and target. An individual Hex-record is a single line in a file composed of many Hex-records.

HEX-RECORD CONTENT
Hex-Records are character strings made of several fields which specify the record type, record length, memory address, data, and checksum. Each byte of binary data is encoded as a 2-character hexadecimal number: the first ASCII character representing the high-order 4 bits, and the second the low-order 4 bits of the byte.

The 6 fields which comprise a Hex-record are defined as follows:

Field		Characters	Description
1	Start code	1	An ASCII colon, ":".
2	Byte count	2	The count of the bytes (ASCII character pairs) in the data field. The byte count is typically 16.
3	Address	4	The 2-byte address at which the data field is to be loaded into memory.
4	Type	2	00, 01, or 02.
5	Data	2(Byte count)	Each data byte is represented in hexadecimal format by two ASCII characters.
6	Checksum	2	The least significant byte of the two's complement sum of the values represented by all the pairs of characters in the record except the start code and checksum.

Each record may be terminated with a CR/LF/NULL. Accuracy of transmission is ensured by the byte count and checksum fields. Because the data field is composed of character pairs, each pair being one 8-bit byte, Intel hex files are commonly used with 8-bit processors. Because the address field is only four characters, Intel hex files are restricted to a 64 kilobyte address space.

HEX-RECORD TYPES
There are three possible types of Hex-records.

00	A record containing data and the 2-byte address at which the data is to reside.
01	A termination record for a file of Hex-records. Only one termination record is allowed per file and it must be the last line of the file. There is no data field.
02	A segment base address record. This type of record is ignored by Lucid programmers.

HEX-RECORD EXAMPLE
Following is a typical Hex-record module consisting of four data records and a termination record.

     :10010000214601360121470136007EFE09D2190140
     :100110002146017EB7C20001FF5F16002148011988
     :10012000194E79234623965778239EDA3F01B2CAA7
     :100130003F0156702B5E712B722B732146013421C7
     :00000001FF

The first data record is explained as follows:
     :     Start code.

     10    Hex 10 (decimal 16), indicating 16 data character
           pairs, 16 bytes of binary data, in this record.

     01    Four-character 2-byte address field:  hex address 0100,
     00    indicates location where the following data is to be loaded.

     00    Record type indicating a data record.

The next 16 character pairs are the ASCII bytes of the actual program data.

     40    Checksum of the first Hex-record.


The termination record is explained as follows:
     :     Start code.

     00    Byte count is zero, no data in termination record.

     00    Four-character 2-byte address field, zeros.
     00

     01    Record type 01 is termination.

     FF    Checksum of termination record.