Now that we've got functions like uxTaskGetStackHighWaterMark for helping us to fine tune the stack sizes, it would be nice to have a function that returns the available heap memory as well. It's presently just guess work unless we patch heap_1.c (or whatever) to find out how much memory has actually been allocated.

This could be done through some more hook macros that allow you to track the amount of heap taken and returned. I think this was suggested on this forum before. It would not tell you anything about heap fragmentation though.

Use this function to walk the heap. It also shows free ROM and RAM. It's written for the STR750 with a version 4 IAR compiler.

#pragma segment = "ROM0_START"
#pragma segment = "ROM0_TOP"
#pragma segment = "ROM0_END"
#pragma segment = "RAM_START"
#pragma segment = "RAM_TOP"
#pragma segment = "RAM_END"
#pragma segment = "HEAP"

typedef struct FREE FREE;

struct FREE { // Heap free block list structure:
uint32_t sulSize; // Free block size
FREE *spsNext; // Pointer to the next free block
};

extern FREE __data_Aldata; // Heap information structure

void ShowHeap (void) {
FREE *xpsFree; // Free heap block
long *xplStack; // Stack pointer
long xlRomSize; // ROM size
long xlRamSize; // RAM size
long xlMemory;
long xlHeapTotal;
long xlHeapFree;
long xlHeapUsed;

// The heap is walked to find the amount of free memory available.

xlHeapFree = 0;
xpsFree = &__data_Aldata;
while (xpsFree->spsNext) {
xpsFree = xpsFree->spsNext;
xlHeapFree += xpsFree->sulSize;
}
xlHeapTotal = (long) __sfe ("HEAP") - (long) __sfb ("HEAP");
xlHeapUsed = xlHeapTotal - xlHeapFree;

// Header

printf ("Heap | Free stack | Free memory\r\n");
xlRomSize = (long) __sfb ("ROM0_END") - (long) __sfb ("ROM0_START") + 1;
xlRamSize = (long) __sfb ("RAM_END") - (long) __sfb ("RAM_START") + 1;

// Used heap, FIQ stack, and free flash

for (xplStack = (long *) &Stack_FIQ;
xplStack < (long *) &StackTop_FIQ && *xplStack == RAM_TEST;
++xplStack);
xlMemory = (long) __sfb ("ROM0_END") - (long) __sfb ("ROM0_TOP") + 1;
printf (" Used: %5d | FIQ: %5d | Flash: %6d (%d%%)\r\n",
xlHeapUsed, 4 * (xplStack - (long *) &Stack_FIQ), xlMemory,
100 * xlMemory / xlRomSize);

// Free heap, IRQ stack, and free RAM

for (xplStack = (long *) &Stack_IRQ;
xplStack < (long *) &StackTop_IRQ && *xplStack == RAM_TEST;
++xplStack);
xlMemory = (int) __sfe ("RAM_END") - (int) __sfb ("RAM_TOP") + 1;
printf (" Free: %5d | IRQ: %5d | RAM: %6d (%d%%)\r\n",
xlHeapFree, 4 * (xplStack - (long *) &Stack_IRQ), xlMemory,
100 * xlMemory / xlRamSize);

// Total heap, SVC stack, and free heap + RAM

for (xplStack = (long *) &Stack_SVC;
xplStack < (long *) &StackTop_SVC && *xplStack == RAM_TEST;
++xplStack);
printf (" TOTAL: %5d | SVC: %5d | Heap+RAM: %6d (%d%%)\r\n",
xlHeapTotal, 4 * (xplStack - (long *) &Stack_SVC),
xlMemory + xlHeapFree, 100 * (xlMemory + xlHeapFree) / xlRamSize);
}