(XC16) How can I utilize the upper 8-bits of program memory to effectively store constants?

The qualifier __pack_upper_byte will allocate the message string into Flash memory in such a way that the upper byte of memory contains valid data. There are no restrictions on the types of __pack_upper_byte data. This qualifier can be used with both the primary data types as well as the secondary data types.

The compiler will "pack" structures as if __attribute__((packed)) had been specified.

Example

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Memory Allocation Without __pack_upper_byte (string_un_packed):

Address Value ASCII
00A08 BE054F BE044F 060000 006854 O...O... ....Th..
00A10 007369 006920 002073 002061 is.. i.. s ..a ..
00A18 007473 006972 00676E 00002E st..ri.. ng......

Memory Allocation With __pack_upper_byte (string_packed):

Address Value ASCII
00D30 696854 692073 612073 747320 Thi.s i. s a. st.
00D38 6E6972 002E67 FFFFFF FFFFFF rin.g... ........

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