As any software developer is well aware, the basic process for building an embedded application is quite straightforward. Normally, the code is written in some combination of C [perhaps C++] and assembly language and distributed across a number of files [modules]. Each module is compiled/assembled to produce a relocatable object module; this file contains the machine code instructions for the target processor, but with the memory addresses left open. The numerous object modules are then joined together using a linker [sometimes called a linker/locator], which resolves the memory addresses to the required final locations and produces the absolute file, which is an image of the final system memory.

That is the simple picture. There are other nuances, like incremental linking [where a number of relocatables are joined together to make another relocatable – linking, no locating] and object module libraries … (more…)