martinKindall / elf2hex

Converts ELF files to HEX files that are suitable for Verilog's readmemh.

Generating .HEX file from RISC-V .elf files with elf2hex

./elf2hex [-h] --bit-width BIT_WIDTH --input INPUT.ELF [--output OUTPUT.HEX]

SiFive's Verilog test harnesses can't directly read ELF binaries but are instead required to be provided with a hexidecimal dump of a particular width and depth. This project allows users to easily create these files.

Building elf2hex from a release

The best way to build elf2hex is from the latest release's tarball, as these releases have been tested. elf2hex uses the standard GNU build flow:

tar -xvzpf elf2hex-1.0.1.tar.gz cd elf2hex-1.0.1 ./configure --target=riscv64-unknown-elf make make install

Building from the tarballs requires Python 3.5 (or newer) as well as a C compiler, as well as a RISC-V toolchain.

Building elf2hex from git

The latest source for elf2hex can be found on SiFive's GitHub. While the master branch is always meant to be stable, there are no guarantees. To build from git sources you must regenerate the build scripts from their sources and then follow the standard build flow

git clone git://github.com/sifive/elf2hex.git
cd elf2hex
autoreconf -i
./configure --target=riscv64-unknown-elf
make
make install

Converting Assembler code to .HEX files

Requirements

• RISC-V Toolchain (32 or 64 bits, in this example I will use the 32 version)
• Here's a guide how to easily build the 32-bits version with the ISA of your choice

Example

riscv32-unknown-elf-as exampleProg.S -o exampleProg.o
riscv32-unknown-elf-ld -o exampleProg.elf -T bram.ld -m elf32lriscv -nostdlib --no-relax
riscv32-unknown-elf-elf2hex --bit-width 32 --input exampleProg.elf --output exampleProg.hex