The MOS Technology file format is a
file format
A file format is a standard way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file. It specifies how bits are used to encode information in a digital storage medium. File formats may be either proprietary or free.
Some file formats ...
that conveys binary information in
ASCII text form.
History
The
KIM-1 single-board computer specified a
file format for magnetic tape and a format for paper tape. The paper tape format was adapted slightly and has been used to interchange files for computers based on the
MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor.
The open-source Srecord package simplified this tape format by eliminating the and characters.
Format
Each record begins with a
semicolon (), followed by two
hexadecimal
In mathematics and computing, the hexadecimal (also base-16 or simply hex) numeral system is a positional numeral system that represents numbers using a radix (base) of 16. Unlike the decimal system representing numbers using 10 symbols, hexa ...
digits denoting the length of the data in the record. The next two bytes represent the starting address of the data, in
big-endian (most-significant byte first) hexadecimal. Up to 24 bytes of data follow. Then, there is a 2-byte (4-character)
checksum: the sum of the other non- data in the record.
Finally, a record ends with a
carriage return (), a
line break (), and six
null characters ().
The last record on the paper tape is empty (its length field is ), with the starting address field representing the total number of data bytes contained in the transmission. The file ends with a .
See also
*
Binary-to-text encoding, a survey and comparison of encoding algorithms
*
Intel hex format
*
Motorola S-record hex format
Motorola S-record is a file format, created by Motorola in the mid-1970s, that conveys binary information as hex values in ASCII text form. This file format may also be known as SRECORD, SREC, S19, S28, S37. It is commonly used for programm ...
*
Tektronix hex format
Tektronix hex format (TEK HEX) and Extended Tektronix hex format (EXT TEK HEX or XTEK) / Extended Tektronix Object Format are ASCII-based hexadecimal file formats, created by Tektronix, for conveying binary information for applications like ...
References
{{Reflist, refs=
[{{cite web , title=srec_mos_tech − MOS Technology file format , author-first=Peter , author-last=Miller , date=2014 , orig-date=1998 , version=Version 1.64 , url=http://srecord.sourceforge.net/man/man5/srec_mos_tech.html , access-date=2020-07-31 , url-status=live , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200731132547/http://srecord.sourceforge.net/man/man5/srec_mos_tech.html , archive-date=2020-07-31]
[{{cite book , title=KIM-1 − Microcomputer Module − User Manual , chapter=Appendix F − Paper Tape Format , date=August 1976 , edition=2 , publisher= MOS Technology , location=Norristown, Pasadena, USA , id=Publications Number 6500-15B , pages=F-1 − F-2 , chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/KIM-1_Users_Manual/page/n98/mode/1up , access-date=2020-07-31}]
https://web.archive.org/web/20200726160056/http://users.telenet.be/kim1-6502/6502/usrman.html#F]
[{{cite book , author-first=Herwig , author-last=Feichtinger , title=Arbeitsbuch Mikrocomputer , trans-title=Microcomputer work book , chapter=1.8.5. Lochstreifen-Datenformate: Das Intel-Hex-Format , trans-chapter=1.8.5. Paper tape data formats , language=de , location=Munich, Germany , publisher= Franzis Verlag, Franzis-Verlag GmbH , isbn=3-7723-8022-0 , date=1987 , edition=2 , pages=240–243 43}]
[{{cite web , title=HEX.DOC: MOS Technology Hex Format , author-first=Werner , author-last=Hennig-Roleff , language=de , work=SIM51 , date=1993-02-01 , orig-date=1988 , version=1.04 , url=http://spot.fho-emden.de/ftp/micro/sim51_04.zip , access-date=2021-12-08 , url-status=live , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170811161238/http://spot.fho-emden.de/ftp/micro/sim51_04.zip , archive-date=2017-08-11]
https://web.archive.org/web/20210806202253/https://www.dos4ever.com/8031board/SIM51_06.zip] --> (NB. This is an older version of SIM51, the software and documentation was maintained up to 1996.)
Binary-to-text encoding formats