Re: [9fans] Non-stack-based calling conventions

[maht <mattmobile@proweb.co.uk>]

I'm quoting out of context as they were discussing the design of the
Inferno VM but Phil Winterbottom & Rob Pike mention in
http://www.vitanuova.com/inferno/papers/hotchips.html :

"One might argue that a stack-based processor design would mitigate the
difficulties, but our experience with the implementation of a stack
machine in the AT&T Crisp microprocessor [5] leads us to believe that
stack architectures are inherently slower than register-based machines.
Their design lengthens the critical path by replacing simple registers
with a complex stack cache mechanism."

5. Ditzel, D. R. and McLellan, R., ``Register Allocation for Free: The C
Machine Stack Cache'', Proc. of Symp. on Architectural Support for
Programming Languages and Operating Systems, March, 1982, pp. 48-56.

I found the paper at http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=960120.801825
but you have to have a paid account so I have no idea of their
conclusions beyond Rob & Phil's comment
It is a widely cited paper though, so it must be a good read. (and I did
find loads of other great stuff while trying to find it)

The Crisp sounds like something interesting, anyone know much about it?

I found this again at acm
Design tradeoffs to support the C programming language in the CRISP
microprocessor
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=36198&coll=portal&dl=ACM

and this at ieee
CRISP: a pipelined 32-bit microprocessor with 13-kbit of cache memory
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/login.jsp?url=/iel5/4/22616/01052813.pdf

seems that information doesn't want to be free today

> I've got some time to delve into Fascicle One again and indeed, MMIX
> doesn't have any stack at all. When you need stack, you implement it
> yourself. Anyone knows of other CPU's using this method for stack
> (i.e. no in-built support for stack in memory)? There is stack based
> on registers, though.
>