GCC and the PROGMEM Attribute

Dean Camera May 5, 2013

Text

Dean Camera, 2013. All rights reserved.

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Contents
1 Introduction 2 Basic PROGMEM Use 3 More advanced uses of PROGMEM 3.1 3.2 3.3 Storing data arrays in program memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PROGMEM Pointers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PROGMEM Strings and printf() . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 4 6 6 7 9

Chapter 1

Introduction
The PROGMEM attribute is always a source of confusion for those beginning with AVR-GCC. The PROGMEM attribute is a powerful one and holds the potential to save a lot of RAM, which is something of a limited commodity on many AVRs. Before you can use the PROGMEM attribute, you must rst understand what it does and why it is useful. When strings are used in a program, they are commonly hard-coded into the rmware source code:
LCD_puts ( " Hardcoded String " ) ;

While this seems the most logical way of using strings, it is not the most optimal. Common sense and intuition would dictate that the compiler would store the string in the program memory, and read it out byte-by-byte inside the LCD_puts() routine. But this is not what happens. Because the LCD_puts() routine (or other string routines) are designed to work with strings in RAM, the compiler is forced to read out the entire string constant from program memory into RAM, and then pass the strings RAM pointer to the routine (in this case LCD_puts()). It certainly works but the RAM wastage adds up to signicant amounts with each string. Why? Initial variable values and strings are copied out from program memory into RAM as part of the C startup routines, which execute before your main() function. Those startup routines give your globals their initial values, as well as ensure that all strings are inside RAM so they can be passed to your desired string handling routines. As more strings are added to your program, more data must be copied to RAM at startup and the more RAM is used up by holding static (unchanging) data. The solution to the problem is forcing strings to stay in program memory and only be read out as they are needed. This is not a simple task and requires string routines specically designed to handle strings kept solely inside the program memory space. Using the const modier on your string variables is a natural solution but a wrong one. A const variable can only not be modied by the program code, but it does not explicitly prevent the variable value from being copied out to the AVRs RAM on startup. Some compilers implicitly do this for you, but GCC needs to be explicitly told that the contents must live in program memory for the entire duration of the programs execution.

Chapter 2

Basic PROGMEM Use

To force a string into program memory, we can now use the PROGMEM attribute modier on our string constants. An example of a global string which is stored into program memory and not copied out at execution time is:
char FlashString [] PROGMEM = " This is a string held completely in flash memory . " ;

In older AVR-GCC versions, variables tagged with the PROGMEM attribute dont have to also explicitly be marked as const, however this is changing in newer releases. To prevent compile time warnings, we add this to the variables declaration:
const char FlashString [] PROGMEM = " This is a string held completely in flash memory . " ;

Now that the PROGMEM string has a const modier, we cannot try to modify it in our code. The pgmspace.h header also exposes a neat little macro, PSTR(), which by some GCC magic allows you to create inline strings that are kept in FLASH memory:
LCD_puts ( PSTR ( " Program Memory String " ) ) ;

This stops you from having to clutter your program up with hundreds of variables which hold onetime-used strings. The downside to using the PSTR macro rather than a PROGMEM modied string variable is that you can only use it within functions - you cant use it as a global variable initializer. Also be aware that the compiler treats all PSTR() declared strings as being completely seperate to one-another, so declaring the same string contents in multiple places will waste extra program FLASH memory. If you nd yourself using the same string multiple times in your application, use a globally declared PROGMEM string instead. However, we now have a problem now all your code doesnt work! Whats wrong? The reason behind this is that your string functions are still expecting the source strings to be held inside RAM. When you pass a string to a routine, you are in fact just passing a pointer (a memory address) to the start of the string located somewhere in RAM. The string handling routine then just loads the bytes of the string one-by-one, starting from the pointers location. But our PROGMEM strings are not in RAM, so the pointer to them is invalid. 4

CHAPTER 2. BASIC PROGMEM USE

A pointer to a string stored in PROGMEM returns the address in ash memory at which the string is stored. Its still a valid pointer, its just pointing to a dierent memory space. To use PROGMEM strings in our application, we need to make our string routines PROGMEM-pointer aware. Again, pgmspace.h comes to our rescue. It contains several functions and macros which deal with PROGMEM-based strings. First, you have all your standard string routines (memcpy(), strcmp(), etc.) with a _P postx denoting that the function deals with the FLASH memory space. For example, to compare a RAM-based string with a PROGMEM-based string, you would use the strcmp_P() function:
strcmp_P ( " RAM STRING " , PSTR ( " FLASH STRING " ) ) ;

For a full list of the avaliable string functions, check out the avr-libc documentation which is installed with your WinAVR or Atmel Toolchain installation. But what if you have your own string function, like a USART-transmitting routine? Lets look at a typical example:
void USART_T xString ( const char * data ) { while (* data != \0 ) USART_Tx (* data ++) ; }

This relies on the routine USART_Tx(), which for the purposes of this example we will assume to be predened as a function which transmits a single passed character through the AVRs USART. Now, how do we change our routine to use a PROGMEM string? The pgmspace.h headed exposes a macro which is important for PROGMEM-aware routines; pgm_read_byte(). This macro takes a PROGMEM pointer as its argument, and returns the byte located at that pointer value. To mark that our new routine deals in PROGMEM strings, lets append a _P to its name just like the other routines in pgmspace.h:
void USART _ T x S t r i n g _ P ( const char * data ) { while ( pgm_read_byte ( data ) != 0 x00 ) USART_Tx ( pgm_read_byte ( data ++) ) ; }

Now we have our

PROGMEM-aware

routine, we can use

PROGMEM-attributes

strings:

USART_TxSt r i n g _ P ( PSTR ( " FLASH STRING " ) ) ;

Or:
const char TestFlashStr [] PROGMEM = " FLASH STRING " ; USART_TxSt r i n g _ P ( TestFlashStr ) ;

This should give you a basic idea of how to store strings and keep them in ash memory space. What follows is the second half of this tutorial, for more advanced uses of the PROGMEM attribute.

Chapter 3

More advanced uses of PROGMEM

3.1

Storing data arrays in program memory

Its important to realize that all static data in your program can be kept in program memory without being read out into RAM. While strings are by far the most common reason for using the PROGMEM attribute, you can also store arrays too. This is especially the case when you are dealing with font arrays for a LCD, or the like. Consider the following (trimmed) code for an Atmel AVR Buttery LCD font table:
static unsigned { 0 xEAA8 , 0 x2A80 , 0 x4000 , 0 x0A00 , 0 x0A51 , 0 x4008 , } int LCD_SegTable [] PROGMEM = // // // // // // * + , - . Degree sign /

Because weve added the PROGMEM attribute, the table is now stored rmly in ash memory. The overall savings for a table this size is negligible, but in a practical application the data to be stored may be many times the size shown here and without the PROGMEM attribute, all that will be copied into RAM. First thing to notice here is that the table data is of the type unsigned int. This means that our data is two bytes long (for the AVR), and so our prgm_read_byte() macro wont suce for this instance. Thankfully, another macro exists; pgm_read_word(). A word for the AVR is two bytes long the same size as an int. Because of this fact, we can now make use of it to read out our table data. If we wanted to grab the fth element of the array, the following extract would complete this purpose:
pgm_read_word (& LCD_SegTable [4])

Note that we are taking the address of the fourth element of LCD_SegTable, which is an address in ash and not RAM due to the table having the PROGMEM attribute.

CHAPTER 3. MORE ADVANCED USES OF PROGMEM

3.2

PROGMEM Pointers

Its hard to remember that there is a layer of abstraction between ash memory access unlike RAM variables we cant just reference the contents at will without macros to manage the separate memory space macros such as prgm_read_byte(). But when it all really starts confusing is when you have to deal with pointers to PROGMEM strings which are also held in PROGMEM. Why could this possibly be useful you ask? Well, ill start as usual with a short example.
char MenuItem1 [] = " Menu Item 1 " ; char MenuItem2 [] = " Menu Item 2 " ; char MenuItem3 [] = " Menu Item 3 " ; char * Menu It e m P o i n t e r s [] = { MenuItem1 , MenuItem2 , MenuItem3 };

Here we have three strings containing menu function names. We also have an array which points to each of these three items. Lets use our pretend function USART_TxString() from part I of this tutorial. Say we want to print out the menu item corresponding with a number the user presses, which well assume is returned by an imaginary function named USART_GetNum(). Our (pseudo-)code might look like this:
# include < avr / io .h > char MenuItem1 [] = " Menu Item 1 " ; char MenuItem2 [] = " Menu Item 2 " ; char MenuItem3 [] = " Menu Item 3 " ; char * Menu It e m P o i n t e r s [] = { MenuItem1 , MenuItem2 , MenuItem3 }; void main ( void ) { while (1) // Eternal Loop { char EnteredNum = USART_GetNum () ; USART _TxStri ng ( M e n u I t e m P o i n t e r s [ EnteredNum ]) ; } }

Those condent with the basics of C will see no problems with this - its all non-PROGMEM data and so it all can be interacted with in the manner of which we are accustomed. But what happens if the menu item strings are placed in PROGMEM?
# include < avr / io .h > # include < avr / pgmspace .h > const char MenuItem1 [] PROGMEM = " Menu Item 1 " ; const char MenuItem2 [] PROGMEM = " Menu Item 2 " ; const char MenuItem3 [] PROGMEM = " Menu Item 3 " ; const char * M e n u I te m P o i n t e r s [] = { MenuItem1 , MenuItem2 , MenuItem3 }; void main ( void ) { while (1) // Eternal Loop { char EnteredNum = USART_GetNum () ; USAR T _ T x S t r i n g _ P ( M e n u I t e m P o in t e r s [ EnteredNum ]) ; } }

Easy! We add the PROGMEM attribute to our strings and then substitute the RAM-aware USART_TxString () routine with the PROGMEM-aware one we delt with in part I, USART_TxString_P(). Ive also added in

CHAPTER 3. MORE ADVANCED USES OF PROGMEM

the const modier as explained in part I, since its good practice. But what if we want to save a nal part of RAM and store our pointer table in PROGMEM also? This is where it gets slightly more complicated. Lets try to modify our program to put the pointer array into
# include < avr / io .h > # include < avr / pgmspace .h > const char MenuItem1 [] PROGMEM = " Menu Item 1 " ; const char MenuItem2 [] PROGMEM = " Menu Item 2 " ; const char MenuItem3 [] PROGMEM = " Menu Item 3 " ; const char * M e n u I te m P o i n t e r s [] PROGMEM = { MenuItem1 , MenuItem2 , MenuItem3 }; void main ( void ) { while (1) // Eternal Loop { char EnteredNum = USART_GetNum () ; USAR T _ T x S t r i n g _ P ( M e n u I t e m P o in t e r s [ EnteredNum ]) ; } } PROGMEM

and see if it works.

Hmm, no luck. The reason is simple: although the pointer table contains valid pointers to strings in PROGMEM, now that it is also in PROGMEM we need to read it via the pgm_read_x() macros. First, its important to know how pointers in GCC are stored. Pointers in GCC are usually two bytes long, i.e. 16 bits. A 16-bit pointer is the smallest sized integer capable of holding the address of any byte within 64kb of memory. Because of this, our uint8_t* typed pointer tables elements are all 16-bits long. The data the pointer is addressing is an unsigned character of 8 bits, but the pointer itself is 16 bits wide. Ok, so now we know our pointer size. How can we read our 16-bit pointer out of macro of course!
# include < avr / io .h > # include < avr / pgmspace .h > const char MenuItem1 [] PROGMEM = " Menu Item 1 " ; const char MenuItem2 [] PROGMEM = " Menu Item 2 " ; const char MenuItem3 [] PROGMEM = " Menu Item 3 " ; const char * M e n u I te m P o i n t e r s [] PROGMEM = { MenuItem1 , MenuItem2 , MenuItem3 }; void main ( void ) { while (1) // Eternal Loop { char EnteredNum = USART_GetNum () ; USAR T _ T x S t r i n g _ P ( pgm_read_word (& M e n u I t e m P o i n t e r s [ EnteredNum ]) ) ; } } PROGMEM?

With the

pgm_read_word()

Almost there! GCC will probably give you warnings with code like this, but will most likely generate the correct code. The problem is the typecast; pgm_read_word() is returning a word-sized value while USART_TxString_P() is expecting (if you look back at the parameters for the function in part I) a char* pointer type. While the sizes of the two data types are the same (remember, the pointer is 16-bits!) to the compiler it looks like we are trying to do the code equivalent of shoving a square peg in a round hole. To instruct the compiler that we really do want to use that 16-bit return value of pgm_read_word() as a pointer to a const char in ash memory, we need to typecast it to a pointer in the form of char*. Our nal program will now look like this:

CHAPTER 3. MORE ADVANCED USES OF PROGMEM

# include < avr / io .h > # include < avr / pgmspace .h > const char MenuItem1 [] PROGMEM = " Menu Item 1 " ; const char MenuItem2 [] PROGMEM = " Menu Item 2 " ; const char MenuItem3 [] PROGMEM = " Menu Item 3 " ; const char * M e n u I te m P o i n t e r s [] PROGMEM = { MenuItem1 , MenuItem2 , MenuItem3 }; void main ( void ) { while (1) // Eternal Loop { char EnteredNum = USART_GetNum () ; USAR T _ T x S t r i n g _ P (( char *) pgm_read_word (& M e n u It e m P o i n t e r s [ EnteredNum ]) ) ; } }

I recommend looking through the avr-libc documentation of the <avr/pgmspace.h> header documentation section for information about the other PROGMEM related library functions avaliable. Other functions such as pgm_read_dword(), which reads four bytes (double that of a word for the AVR architecture) behave in a similar manner to the functions detailed in this tutorial and might be of use for your end-application.

3.3

PROGMEM Strings and printf()

Finally, lets cover another advanced use case of PROGMEM strings; printing them out using the C string formatting library function printf(). Not everyone is a fan of the string formatting functions located in the C standard librarys <stdio.h> header due to their large size and slow execution speed, but they can make complex applications quite a bit simpler if your can stomache the size/performance penalties. Lots of applications will typically contain code that looks something like this:
char ParameterA = " Parameter A " ; char ParameterB = " Parameter B " ; void P r i n t P a r a m e t e r V a l u e ( char * ParameterName , uint8_t Pa rameterV alue ) { printf ( " The value of % s is % d " , ParameterName , Paramete rValue ) ; }

Note that for clarity, the initialization code of the program is omitted if you arent sure how to do this, see the avr-libc library documentation. Here we have a simple function that formats a string and prints it to the standard output; the call site passes in a pointer to a string and a 8-bit integer, and the function formats it into a nice human-readable string and writes it out. The call site might look something like this:
void W ri t e O u t P a r a m e t e r s ( void ) { P r i n t Pa r a m e t e r V a l u e ( ParameterA , 10) ; P r i n t Pa r a m e t e r V a l u e ( ParameterB , 20) ; }

As we have done before, lets modify the code so that our xed-strings ParameterA and ParameterB can be located in FLASH memory rather than RAM. First, we add the const and PROGMEM qualiers to the global variables and the pointer passed into the function:

CHAPTER 3. MORE ADVANCED USES OF PROGMEM

10

const char ParameterA PROGMEM = " Parameter A " ; const char ParameterB PROGMEM = " Parameter B " ; void P r i n t P a r a m e t e r V a l u e ( const char * ParameterName , uint8_t Param eterValu e ) { printf ( " The value of % s is % d " , ParameterName , Paramete rValue ) ; }

This application now compiles, but running it will produce incorrect output. Once again, we have the problem of a function (in this case, the avr-libc provided printf()) expecting a string that is located in RAM, while were instead passing it a string located in FLASH. In the C language specication for the printf() function a number of special formatting strings (thats the %s, %d, %g, etc. that tells the function how to format the input parameters) are dened, but no specication was made to deal with multiple memory spaces. This isnt so suprising when you consider the origins of C and its single-memory space model, but its a problem for us nonetheless. To x up our code, we need to yet-again consult the avr-libc manual, where we will nd that the library implementors have helpfully provided some special extensions to the standard printf() function - specically, theres a non-standard %S note the capitol S! format specier which tells the function the source string is located in PROGMEM. Changing our format string to use %S instead of the previous %s xes the application and allows us to merrily print out strings from either RAM or FLASH in our code using printf(), sprintf() and its related functions.
const char ParameterA PROGMEM = " Parameter A " ; const char ParameterB PROGMEM = " Parameter B " ; void P r i n t P a r a m e t e r V a l u e ( const char * ParameterName , uint8_t Param eterValu e ) { printf ( " The value of % S is % d " , ParameterName , Paramete rValue ) ; }

Unfortunately no such extensions exist for non-string inputs; so if you have integers for example that you have located into FLASH with PROGMEM, you will need to read them out and buer them into a RAM location before using printf().