Initialization of variables at load time enhances performance by reducing boot time and by saving the memory used by the initialization tables. To use this method, invoke the linker with the --ram_model option.
When you use the --ram_model linker option, the linker sets the STYP_COPY bit in the .cinit section's header. This tells the loader not to load the .cinit section into memory. (The .cinit section occupies no space in the memory map.) The linker also sets the cinit symbol to -1 (normally, cinit points to the beginning of the initialization tables). This indicates to the boot routine that the initialization tables are not present in memory; accordingly, no run-time initialization is performed at boot time.
A loader must be able to perform the following tasks to use initialization at load time:
Figure 3-3 illustrates the initialization of variables at load time.