srec_signetics(5)						File Formats Manual						 srec_signetics(5)

NAME

       srec_signetics - Signetics file format

DESCRIPTION

       The Signetics file format is not often used.  The major disadvantage in modern applications is that the addressing range is limited to only
       64kb.

   Records
       All data lines are called records, and each record contains the following 5 fields:

							     +--+------+----+----+----+----+
							     |: | aaaa | cc | as | dd | ss |
       The field are defined as follows:		     +--+------+----+----+----+----+

       :       Every record starts with this identifier.

       aaaa    The address field.  A four digit (2 byte) number representing the first address to be used by this record.

       cc      The byte-count.	A two digit value (1 byte), counting the actual data bytes in the record.

       as      Address checksum.  Covers 2 address bytes and the byte count.

       dd      The actual data of this record.	There can be 1 to 255 data bytes per record (see cc)

       ss      Data Checksum.  Covers only all the data bytes of this record.

   Record Begin
       Every record begins with a colon ":[rq] character.  Records contain only ASCII characters.  No spaces or tabs are allowed in a record.	In
       fact,  apart from the 1st colon, no other characters than 0..9 and A..F are allowed in a record.  Interpretation of a record should be case
       less, it does not matter if you use a..f or A..F.

       Unfortunately the colon was chosen for the Signetics file format, similar to the Intel format (see  srec_intel(5)  for  more  information).
       However, SRecord is able to automatically detect the dofference between the two format, when you use the -Guess format specifier.

   Address Field
       This  is the address where the first data byte of the record should be stored.  After storing that data byte, the address is incremented by
       1 to point to the address for the next data byte of the record.	And so on, until all data bytes are stored.  The address is represented by
       a  4  digit hex number (2 bytes), with the MSD first.  The order of addresses in the records of a file is not important.  The file may also
       contain address gaps, to skip a portion of unused memory.

   Byte Count
       The byte count cc counts the actual data bytes in the current record.  Usually records have 32 data bytes, but any number between 1 and 255
       is possible.

       A  value  of 0x00 for cc indicates the end of the file.	In this case not even the address checksum will follow!  The record (and file) are
       terminated immediately.

       It is not recommended to send too many data bytes in a record for that may increase the transmission time in case of  errors.   Also  avoid
       sending only a few data bytes per record, because the address overhead will be too heavy in comparison to the payload.

   Address Checksum
       This  is  not really a checksum anymore, it looks more like a CRC.  The checksum can not only detect errors in the values of the bytes, but
       also bytes out of order can be detected.

       The checksum is calculated by this algorithm:
	      checksum = 0
	      for i = 1 to 3
		checksum = checkum XOR byte
		ROL checksum
	      next i
       For the Address Checksum we only need 2 Address bytes and 1 Byte Count byte to be added.  That's why we count to 3 in the loop.	Every byte
       is XORed with the previous result.  Then the intermediate result is rolled left (carry rolls back into b0).

       This results in a very reliable checksum, and that for only 3 bytes!

       The last record of the file does not contain any checksums!  So the file ends right after the Byte Count of 0.

   Data Field
       The  payload  of  the  record  is  formed by the Data field.  The number of data bytes expected is given by the Byte Count field.  The last
       record of the file may not contain a Data field.

   Data Checksum
       This checksum uses the same algorithm as used for the Address Checksum.	This time we calculate the checksum with only the  data  bytes	of
       this record.
	      checksum = 0
	      for i = 1 to cc
		checksum = checksum XOR byte
		ROL checksum
	      next i
       Note that we count to the Byte Count cc this time.

   Size Multiplier
       In general, binary data will expand in sized by approximately 2.4 times when represented with this format.

EXAMPLE

       Here is an example Signetics file
	      :B00010A5576F77212044696420796F75207265617B
	      :B01010E56C6C7920676F207468726F756768206136
	      :B02010256C6C20746861742074726F75626C652068
	      :B0300D5F746F207265616420746869733FD1
	      :B03D00
       In  the	example above you can see a piece of code in Signetics format.	The first 3 lines have 16 bytes of data each, which can be seen by
       the byte count.	The 4th line has only 13 bytes, because the program is at it's end there.

       Notice that the last record of the file contains no data bytes, and not even an Address Checksum.

SEE ALSO

       http://sbprojects.fol.nl/knowledge/fileformats/signetics.htm

AUTHOR

       This man page was taken from the above Web page.  It was written by San Bergmans <sanmail@bigfoot.com>

Reference Manual						      SRecord							 srec_signetics(5)