Tektronix extended HEX

Tektronix extended HEX is a file format, created by Tektronix, for conveying binary information for applications like programming microcontrollers, EPROMs, and other kinds of chips.

Each line of Tektronix extended HEX file starts with a percent (%) character. A line consists of five parts:

1. Record Length — 2 character (1 byte) field that specifies the number of characters (not bytes) in the record, excluding the percent, the length field, the type field and the checksum.
2. Type — 1 character field, specifies whether the record is data (6) or termination (8). (6 record contains data, placed at the address specified. 8 termination record: The address field may optionally contain the address of the instruction to which control is passed ; there is no data field.)
3. Checksum — 2 hex digits (1 byte, represents the sum of all the nibbles on the line,excluding the checksum itself.
4. Address — 9 character field. The first character is the address size and is always 8. The remaining 8 characters are the 4-byte address that specifies where the data is to be loaded into memory.
5. Data — contains the executable code, memory-loadable data or descriptive information to be transferred.

See also

• Intel HEX, hex file format by Intel
• SREC, hex file format by Motorola
• Binary-to-text encoding, comparison of various encoding algorithms