Re: [Q] PowerPC compilation questions.

Mohd Hanafiah Abdullah <napi@cs.indiana.edu> writes:
>I need to know how the ACTIVATION RECORD produced by a compiler that follows
>the PowerPC specs looks like. Also, which registers are used for the STACK
>POINTER and FRAME POINTER? Finally, does the stack grow from low address to
>high address, or is it otherwise? Thanks.


There is no PowerPC standard activation record. At least not in the
PowerPC 601 User's Manual. However, the only two OS's currently available
that run on the PowerPC (AIX and Macintosh System 7) do use the same
calling convention.


The convention is difficult to describe briefly. It uses a unified stack
and frame pointer in GPR1. Each function's stack frame size is fixed at
compile time. The stack grows towards lower addresses.


See the AIX Version 3.2 Assembler Language Reference, pp. 5-15 through
5-35, or Inside Macintosh: PowerPC System Software, pp. 1-41 through 1-50,
for all the gory details.
--

Return to the comp.compilers page.
Search the comp.compilers archives again.