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NAME

       srec_msbin - Windows CE Binary Image Data Format

DESCRIPTION

       This  format  is  the  output  of the Microsoft WinCE Platform Builder.
       This is a binary (non-text) file format.  File  names  in  this  format
       typically (ambiguously) use the .bin suffix.

   File Format
       Files in this format start with a header record.

       Then comes the data itself, organized into records.

       The  file  finishes  with  an  execution start address record.  This is
       mandatory.

   File Header Record
       Data in this format start with an optional header containing the  magic
       “B000FF\n”,  followed  by  the  image start (four bytes, little endian)
       address and the span of the image (highest address - lowest  address  +
       1)  (four  bytes,  little  endian).   The  file  header does not have a
       checksum; it is therefore possible that a corrupt file header  will  go
       undetected.

       +-----------+------------+------------+
       |Magic      | Least      | Greatest   |
       |“B000FF\n” | Address    | Address    |
       |(7 bytes)  | (4 bytes)  | (4 bytes)  |
       There-is-no-provision-for+a-file-comment of any kind.

   Data Record
       Each  record  consists  of  a  record start address (four bytes, little
       endian), a record length (four bytes, little endian), a record checksum
       (four  bytes,  little  endian),  followed by the record data.  The data
       part of each record is raw byte values, no encoding.

       +----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
       |Start     | Length    | Checksum  |   Data    |
       |address   | (4 bytes) | (4 bytes) |           |
       |(4 bytes) |           |           |           |
       +----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
       The checksum is calculated by a simple sum of  unsigned  bytes  into  a
       32-bit accumulator.

       The 12 record header bytes are not included in the record checksums; it
       is therefore possible that a corrupt record header will go  undetected.

       It  is  not  possible  to  place data at address zero with this format.
       Address zero is reserved for use by the execution start address record.

       There  is  effectively no limit on the length of a record (2^32-1).  It
       is not uncommon for a MsBin file to contain records with sizes  in  the
       tens of megabytes.

   Execution Start Address Record
       Last  comes  a  special  record with the record address set to zero and
       record length set to the image execution start address.   According  to
       specification the record describing the execution start address must be
       always present, and must always be the last record in the file.

       +----------+-----------+-----------+
       |Zero      | Start     | Checksum  |
       |(4 bytes) | Address   | = 0       |
       |          | (4 bytes) | (4 bytes) |
       +----------+-----------+-----------+
   Commentary
       The MsBin files produced by SRecord are valid and can  be  successfully
       parsed  by  the  command  line  utilities  viewbin and cvrtbin (part of
       Windows CE platform).

       For a MsBin file to be usable in Microsoft WinCE  Platform  Builder  it
       has to contain a TOC meta-structure.  This is data embedded in the file
       by Microsoft WinCE Platform Builder itself.

       The opposite conversion - from MsBin - comes in handy when analyzing  a
       MsBin file (i.e. a WinCE image).

   Size Multiplier
       In general, binary data will expand in sized by approximately 1.0 times
       (approaching asymptotically from  above)  when  represented  with  this
       format,  as  the 15‐byte file header is averaged over the data content.
       Holes in the data will also increase the size.

SOURCE

       http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms924510.aspx

COPYRIGHT

       srec_cat version 1.55
       Copyright (C) 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002,  2003,  2004,  2005,  2006,
       2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Peter Miller

       The srec_cat program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details use
       the ’srec_cat -VERSion License’ command.  This is free software and you
       are  welcome  to  redistribute it under certain conditions; for details
       use the ’srec_cat -VERSion License’ command.

AUTHOR

       Peter Miller   E‐Mail:   pmiller@opensource.org.au
       /\/\*             WWW:   http://miller.emu.id.au/pmiller/