Patent ID: 8726257

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of linking a program targeted for use on an embedded processor based on attributes stored with the code, the method comprising: modifying an object code file to include metadata that includes a file attribute that describes memory characteristic preferences for the object code file to determine placement in at least one of the plurality of memories accessible by the embedded processor, wherein the file attribute is metadata stored with the object code file and wherein the attributes describe storage preferences in a plurality of memories of different types accessible by the embedded processor; and accessing the file attribute of the object code file applying an attribute-based filter that maps the object code file to at least one of the memories based on the memory characteristic preferences for the object code file included in the file attribute, wherein the metadata includes a name and value pair; and modifying the linker program to obtain a list of object files that meet the criteria of the attribute-based filter for a specific expression to create a virtual library and search path for the linker program.