Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!scea!greg_labrec@interactive.sony.com
From: Kevin Holbrook <Kevin_Holbrook@bmc.com>
Newsgroups: scea.yaroze.freetalk,scea.yaroze.programming.codewarrior,scee.yaroze.programming.codewarrior,scee.yaroze.freetalk
Subject: PSX-EXE image format
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 1997 00:05:54 -0600
Organization: SCEA News Server
Lines: 28
Message-ID: <348E3142.1E73@bmc.com>
Reply-To: Kevin_Holbrook@bmc.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: dresden.bmc.com
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01 (Win95; I)
Xref: chuka.playstation.co.uk scea.yaroze.freetalk:178 scea.yaroze.programming.codewarrior:253 scee.yaroze.programming.codewarrior:110

Is there any chance we could get the documentation or information
specifying the layout of the PSX-EXE image format? 

I can get information about ELF quite readily which covers the gcc
compiler. The Yaroze CodeWarrior system generates intermediate ELF code
then uses a final phase linker to generate Sony's PSX-EXE image format.  

I've figured out a bit but it is slow going looking at hex code.
Why does Sony have to pad out the image and why the nice string like
"Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. for XYZ area" wasting space in the
image? I would hope the loader just checks this and then starts loading
into memory from another offset. I'm sure there is a country code in
there somewhere. CodeWarrior Yaroze generates "Sony Computer
Entertainment Inc. for Japan area" by the way. 8-)

Why do I want this you might ask? 
Well I want to write a utility that transparently calls the correct
loader, whether it be siocons or the Metrowerks stuff. It should be
possible to write a generic loader for both formats.

It also wouldn't be too terrible to support dynamic code loading, which
I assume is what the overlays mentioned in places for professional PS
development are for. Their format would be nice to know as well.

Sony, please share with us....

Kevin Holbrook
100% PSX Enthusiast