SPRU513Y August 2001 – June 2022 SM320F28335-EP
With the --image option, the utility generates a memory image by completely filling all of the mapped ranges specified in the ROMS directive.
An object file consists of blocks of memory (sections) with assigned memory locations. Typically, all sections are not adjacent: there are holes between sections in the address space for which there is no data. When such a file is converted without the use of image mode, the hex conversion utility bridges these holes by using the address records in the output file to skip ahead to the start of the next section. In other words, there may be discontinuities in the output file addresses. Some EPROM programmers do not support address discontinuities.
In image mode, there are no discontinuities. Each output file contains a continuous stream of data that corresponds exactly to an address range in target memory. Any holes before, between, or after sections are filled with a fill value that you supply.
An output file converted by using image mode still has address records, because many of the hexadecimal formats require an address on each line. However, in image mode, these addresses are always contiguous.