srec_formatted_binary(5) Formatted Binary file format

DESCRIPTION

This is the PDP-11 paper tape format, described in the DEC-11-GGPC-D PDP-11 "Paper Tape Software Programming Handbook" 1972.

The file starts with a character sequence which appears as an arrow when punched on 8-hole paper tape.

0x08, 0x1C, 0x2A, 0x49, 0x08, 0x00

Then follows a byte count, encoded big-endian in the low 4 bits of the next 4 bytes. The high bits should be zero.

Then follows a 0xFF byte.

The data follows, as many bytes as specified in the header.

The trailer consists of the following bytes:

0x00, 0x00,
and then a 2-byte checksum (big-endian).

The alternate header sequence

0x08, 0x1C, 0x3E, 0x6B, 0x08, 0x00
is followed by an 8-nibble big-endian byte count.

Size Multiplier

In general, binary data will expand in sized very little when represented with this format.

EXAMPLE

Here is a hex dump of a formatted binary file containing the data "Hello, World!". 
0000: 08 1C 2A 49 08 00 00 00  ..*I....
0008: 00 0E FF 48 65 6C 6C 6F  ...Hello
0010: 2C 20 57 6F 72 6C 64 21  , World!
0018: 0A 00 00 04 73           ....s

COPYRIGHT

srec_cat version 1.58
Copyright (C) 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 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 MillerE-Mail:[email protected]
/\/\*WWW:http://miller.emu.id.au/pmiller/

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