Dataman S4 - Manual (Page 17)

DATAMAN S4 MANUAL
Computer Operation 17
File Formats.
S4 sends and receives orthodox computer files.
Only a programmer with an unusual amount of
patience would wish to enter a large quantity of
code into S4 by keying it in hexadecimal
numbers. Microsystems have in the past been
developed by "hand-assembly": the translation
of microprocessor instructions into machine
code mentally without benefit of an assembler,
writing the instructions into memory in
hexadecimal using a keyboard and repetitively
trying out the program until it works. Most sane
programmers these days, who want to stay
sane, would use an assembler which permits
the entry of code as instruction-mnemonics.
The assembler creates a file of machine-code
automatically, but the file is not usually
actionable code. Actionable object code which
is placed in memory exactly as it is received is
called BINARY format. Transmission formats
usually have a certain amount of extra
information, for example the ADDRESS to start
loading the data, CHECKSUM bytes to validate
transmission etc. S4 receives files in common
formats which are output by assemblers;
formats such as INTELHEX, MOTOROLA S,
TEKHEX, ASCII or BINARY and translates
these into actionable object code which is
stored in the USER RAM.