Memory layout

Revision as of 17:18, 27 November 2012 by Neimod (talk | contribs)

ARM11 Physical memory regions

Address Size Description
0x0 0x10000 Bootrom (super secret code/data @ 0x8000)
0x10000 0x10000 Bootrom mirror
0x10000000 ? IO memory
0x18000000 0x600000 ?
0x1FF00000 0x80000 DSP memory
0x1FF80000 0x80000 AXI WRAM
0x20000000 0x8000000 FCRAM

ARM11 User-land memory regions

Virtual Address Region Max Size Description
0x00100000 / 0x14000000 0x03F00000 The ExeFS:/.code is loaded here, executables must be loaded to the 0x00100000 region when the exheader "special memory" flag is clear. The 0x03F00000-byte size restriction only applies when this flag is clear. Executables are usually loaded to 0x14000000 when the exheader "special memory" flag is set, however this address can be arbitrary.
0x08000000 0x08000000 Heap mapped by ControlMemory
0x10000000-StackSize StackSize from process exheader Stack for the main-thread, initialized by the ARM11 kernel. The StackSize from the exheader is usually 0x4000, therefore the stack-bottom is usually 0x0FFFC000.
0x10000000 0x04000000 Applications usually map this region for HID
0x14000000 0x08000000 Can be mapped by ControlMemory
0x1EC00000 IO registers, the mapped IO pages which each process can access is specified in the CXI exheader.(Applications normally don't have access to registers in this range)
0x1FF80000 Configuration Memory, access to this is specified by the exheader as well.

All executable pages are read-only, and data pages have the execute-never permission set. Normally .text from the loaded ExeFS:/.code is the only mapped executable memory. Executable CROs can be loaded into memory, once loaded the CRO .text section memory page permissions are changed via ControlProcessMemory from RW- to R-X. The address and size of each ExeFS:/.code section is stored in the exheader, the permissions for each section is: .text R-X, .rodata R--, .data RW-, and .bss RW-. The loaded .code is mapped to the addresses specified in the exheader by the ARM11 kernel. The stack permissions is initialized by the ARM11 kernel: RW-. The heap permissions is normally RW-.