diff --git a/common.mk b/common.mk
index 6679457e..43615a92 100644
--- a/common.mk
+++ b/common.mk
@@ -161,9 +161,7 @@ run-fast: run-asm-tests-fast run-bmark-tests-fast
 # helper rules to run simulator with fast loadmem via hex files
 #########################################################################################
 $(binary_hex): $(output_dir) $(BINARY)
-	hex_bytes=$(shell readelf --segments --wide $(BINARY) | grep LOAD | tail -n 1 | tr -s [:space:] | cut -f4,6 -d' ' | tr -d x | tr [:lower:] [:upper:] | tr ' ' + | sed 's/0000000008/ibase=16;/' | bc);\
-	power_2_bytes=`python -c "import math; print int(pow(2,math.ceil(math.log($$hex_bytes)/math.log(2))))"`;\
-	elf2hex 64 $$power_2_bytes $(BINARY) $(shell echo "ibase=16;$(LOADMEM_ADDR)" | bc) > $(binary_hex)
+	$(base_dir)/scripts/smartelf2hex.sh $(BINARY) > $(binary_hex)
 
 run-binary-hex: $(output_dir) $(sim) $(binary_hex)
 run-binary-hex: run-binary
diff --git a/scripts/smartelf2hex.sh b/scripts/smartelf2hex.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..782977ff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/smartelf2hex.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+# This script find the appropriate arguments to pass to elf2hex by inspecting the given RISC-V elf binary
+# First and only argument is the binary to be converted.
+# The output of this script should be redirected to a file (as with normal elf2hex).
+
+binary=$1
+segments=`readelf --segments --wide $binary`
+entry_hex=`echo -e "$segments" | grep "Entry point" | cut -f3 -d' ' | sed 's/0x//' | tr [:lower:] [:upper:]`
+entry_dec=`bc <<< "ibase=16;$entry_hex"`
+length_hex=`echo "$segments" | grep LOAD | tail -n 1 | tr -s [:space:] | cut -f4,6 -d' '`
+length_dec=`echo $length_hex | tr -d x | tr [:lower:] [:upper:] | tr ' ' + | sed 's/^/ibase=16;/' | sed "s/$/-$entry_hex/" | bc`
+power_2_length=`echo "x=l($length_dec)/l(2); scale=0; 2^((x+1)/1)" | bc -l`
+elf2hex 64 $power_2_length $binary $entry_dec
diff --git a/variables.mk b/variables.mk
index 61602507..d7eccb49 100644
--- a/variables.mk
+++ b/variables.mk
@@ -173,6 +173,7 @@ override SIM_FLAGS += +loadmem=$(LOADMEM) +loadmem_addr=$(LOADMEM_ADDR)
 endif
 VERBOSE_FLAGS ?= +verbose
 sim_out_name = $(output_dir)/$(subst $() $(),_,$(notdir $(basename $(BINARY))))
+binary_hex= $(sim_out_name).loadmem_hex
 
 #########################################################################################
 # build output directory for compilation