PIC

Use this tab to specify an alternate address for the debugger to load a Position Independent Code (PIC) module on a target board. at an different address than specified in the ELF file. Also, when having to debug an application (such as U-Boot) built with ROM addresses after it has relocated itself to RAM. Usually, PIC is linked in such a way that the entire image starts at address 0x00000000. The PIC tab lets you specify an alternate address at which the debugger will load the PIC module in target memory.

The following figure shows the PIC tab.

Figure 1. PIC Tab
PIC Tab

Check the Alternate Load Address option and then enter the address (in hexadecimal notation) in the corresponding text box. The address that you specify is the starting address at which the debugger loads your program or finds it after runtime relocation. Specifying an alternate load address lets the debugger map the symbolic debugging information contained in the original ELF file to the relocated application image in RAM.

Note: The debugger does not verify whether your code can execute at the specified address. As a result, the PIC generation settings of the compiler, linker and your program's startup routines must correctly set any base registers and perform any required relocations.

Clear the Alternate Load Address option to have the debugger load your program at a default starting address.