High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Intel HEX is a file format for conveying binary information for applications like programming microcontrollers, EPROMs, and other kinds of chips. It is one of the oldest file formats available for this purpose, having been in use since the 1970s. The format is a text file, with each line containing hexadecimal values encoding a sequence of data and their starting offset or absolute address. There are three types of Intel HEX: 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit. They are distinguished by their byte order.