http://bugzilla.gdcproject.org/show_bug.cgi?id=168

Jens Bauer <jens-bugzilla@gpio.dk> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
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                 CC|                            |jens-bugzilla@gpio.dk

--- Comment #1 from Jens Bauer <jens-bugzilla@gpio.dk> ---
Being able to select which section code, variables, arrays and other data will go into is especially important when working with microcontrollers.

The following gives some insight of why this feature is useful on microcontrollers:

For instance: Often the first N words of data is reserved for exception
vectors.
On ARM, for instance (any ARM architecture), the first 16 words which are
32-bit wide each, contain first an initial stack pointer value followed by core
vectors.
After those 16 vectors, the vendor may choose what interrupt vectors to add
(normally up to 256 vectors can be supported here).

In a linker-script, one would typically make a section called .isr_vectors and then put an array of function-pointers in this section. Note: Such a section may be read-only memory (eg. Flash memory or ROM), but in some cases it can be RAM.

Other reasons for being able to specify sections include the ability to choose which data goes into CCMRAM (CCM=Core Coupled Memory) on some devices, NOR-Flash, NAND-Flash, Flash Bank 1, Flash Bank 2, SRAM1, SRAM2, SRAM3, SRAM4, Local SRAM, SDRAM, External SRAM, ROM, and so forth; even SD/MMC card can be written indirectly this way.

On some microcontrollers, it's very useful to have code (normally running in the .text section) to be copied to SRAM for fast execution speed, as executing code from the Flash memory might be up to 7 times slower than SRAM. Thus small subroutines can often be placed in SRAM to improve speed greatly.

Since the D compiler already know about some sections, it would be convenient having native support for it, which would not depend on the backend.

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http://bugzilla.gdcproject.org/show_bug.cgi?id=168

Johannes Pfau <johannespfau@gmail.com> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
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             Status|NEW                         |RESOLVED
                 CC|                            |johannespfau@gmail.com
         Resolution|---                         |FIXED

--- Comment #2 from Johannes Pfau <johannespfau@gmail.com> ---
https://github.com/D-Programming-GDC/GDC/commit/b20184d7639a8e5529cd6172e094d5d2affbb496

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