Patent · US Expired

Instruction specified register value saving in allocated caller stack or not yet allocated callee stack

US6826681B2 · kind B2 · utility

7Cited by
14References
30Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJun 18, 2001
Grant dateNov 30, 2004
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 8, 2022

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F9/4486
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method and apparatus provide means for saving and restoring processor register values and allocating and deallocating stack memory. A first field of a save instruction encodes whether a value in a register of a processor is saved as an argument value or a static value. A second field of the save instruction encodes a size of a stack frame created during execution of the save instruction. An argument value is saved in a calling program's stack frame. A static value is saved in a called program's stack frame. A restore instruction is used to restore static values and deallocate the stack frame. The save and restore instructions may be executed using any programmable device, including a single instruction set architecture processor or a multi-instruction set architecture processor.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.