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7/29/2019 Stack Pointer Frame Pointer Difference
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Discussion Groups | Comp.Arch.Embedded | Difference Between Stack Pointer and Frame Pointer
Difference Between Stack Pointer and Frame Pointer -2005-07-01 09:16:00
Hi all,
I am Ravi Kumar.N. My query is as follows:
I have heard that two types of pointers are used to operate on a
stack 1) Stack Pointer 2) Frame Pointer.
A) Please let me know what is the difference between these two
pointers.
B) When "SP" comes into picture and when "FP" comes into picture.
With Regards,
Ravi Kumar.N
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Re: Difference Between Stack Pointer and Frame Pointer - Mike Silva - 2005-07-01 10:01:00
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7/29/2019 Stack Pointer Frame Pointer Difference
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stack-pointer-frame-pointer-difference 2/7
Since nobody else has yet responded, I'll give it
a try. The way I
understand it, the SP always points to the next available stack address
(may need to be pre-decremented or pre-incremented first), which will
be used for either pushing data or storing a return address. The SP
can change while the called function is executing, if for example the
function dynamically allocates a block of storage on the stack. Thus
data in the stack frame such as passed parameters and local variables
cannot reliably be referenced through offsets from the SP, since the SP
is not guaranteed to have the same value throughout the execution of
the function.
The FP, OTOH, is guaranteed to have the same value throughout the
execution of the function, so all local data can be accessed via
hard-coded offsets from the FP. The FP is set to a fixed value within
the stack frame, often just past the last passed argument.
Here is an image I found that may be useful. You can see that offsets
from FP will always be correct, but offsets from SP will depend on the
size of the dynamic area and thus cannot be hard-coded.
http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/hosking/502/spim/node23.html
Re: Difference Between Stack Pointer and Frame Pointer - Dave Hansen - 2005-07-01 10:09:00
On 1 Jul 2005 06:16:15 -0700,
[email protected] wrote:
>
>Hi all,
> I am Ravi Kumar.N. My query is as follows:
>
> I have heard that two types of pointers are used to operate on a
>stack 1) Stack Pointer 2) Frame Pointer.
No. The stack pointer operates on the stack. The frame pointer
operates on the frame. Very often, the frame is located in the stack,
but it ain't necessarily so.
>
> A) Please let me know what is the difference between these two
>pointers.
The stack pointer always points to the top (or bottom, if you prefer)
of the stack. The frame pointer always points to the frame. Stack
operations (e.g., push, pop, call) do not modify the frame (in a
properly operating system) or the frame pointer (ever).
>
> B) When "SP" comes into picture and when "FP" comes into
picture.
The SP comes into the picture when you are mainpulating the stack.
The FP comes into the picture when you are manipulating the frame.
Regards,
-=Dave
--
Change is inevitable, progress is not.
Re: Difference Between Stack Pointer and Frame Pointer - Lanarcam - 2005-07-01 13:04:00
[email protected] wrote:
> Hi all,
> I am Ravi Kumar.N. My query is as follows:
>
> I have heard that two types of pointers are used to operate on a
> stack 1) Stack Pointer 2) Frame Pointer.
7/29/2019 Stack Pointer Frame Pointer Difference
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stack-pointer-frame-pointer-difference 3/7
>
> A) Please let me know what is the difference between these two
> pointers.
>
> B) When "SP" comes into picture and when "FP" comes into
picture.
If you want a concrete idea, consider a function call
in the good old asm 68k
----------
func(a, b);
move a, -(a7) ; push a on the stack, a7
move b, -(a7) ; push b
jsr func ; push return adress on the stack
; and jump to func
----------
int func(int a, int b)
link a6,#-8 ; push content of a6 on the stack, move a7
; into a6. a6 is now the frame pointer
; of the called function func. decrement a7
; by 8 to allocate storage for a and b
; a6 is the frame pointer and is used to
; reference local variables
; a7 is the stack pointer and is used to
; store return addresses for later function
; calls
...
unlk a6 ; undo link: copy a6 into a7, retrieve old
; a6 from the stack
rts ; pop return address from the stack
with this method a6 is the frame pointer and a7 the stack
pointer.
a7 (SP) ->
a
b
a6 (FP) -> old a6
return address
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Re: Difference Between Stack Pointer and Frame Pointer - Everett M. Greene - 2005-07-02 23:14:00
[email protected] writes:
> I am Ravi Kumar.N. My query is as follows:
>
> I have heard that two types of pointers are used to operate on a
> stack 1) Stack Pointer 2) Frame Pointer.
>
> A) Please let me know what is the difference between these two
> pointers.
>
> B) When "SP" comes into picture and when "FP" comes into
picture.
The other replies haven't distinguished between the two
pointers all that well, so I'll have a try.
The stack pointer (SP) is a hardware feature of almost all
present-day processors. At a minimum, the SP points to the
present end of a queue which holds return addresses of all
the calls made to the moment. When a call is made, the
return address is pushed onto the stack; upon exiting the
called function, the return address is popped from the stack.
The frame pointer (FP) is an optional programming feature
used by some programming languages on some processors.
Not all processors have the hardware resources to implement
a frame pointer and some implementations don't want to have
the extra overhead of maintaining a frame pointer.
An FP, if used, points to a fixed point in the "user" stack
and points to a location in the stack where the arguments
and local variables for a called function are located. This
7/29/2019 Stack Pointer Frame Pointer Difference
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stack-pointer-frame-pointer-difference 4/7
pointer is established upon entry to a function and remains
constant throughout the execution of the called function.
Thus, values can be pushed onto the user stack and popped
from it within the function without impacting the offsets
from the FP.
Note that the user stack need not be the same queue as the
one used by the hardware for return addresses. Quite often
the two queues are one and the same, but there's nothing
that says they have to be.
Re: Difference Between Stack Pointer and Frame Pointer - toby - 2005-07-04 03:53:00
Dave Hansen wrote:
> On 1 Jul 2005 06:16:15 -0700, [email protected] wrote:
>
> >
> >Hi all,
> > I am Ravi Kumar.N. My query is as follows:
> >
> > I have heard that two types of pointers are used to operate on a
> >stack 1) Stack Pointer 2) Frame Pointer.
>
> No. The stack pointer operates on the stack. The frame pointer
> operates on the frame. Very often, the frame is located in the stack,
> but it ain't necessarily so.
Care to name a counterexample?
>
> >
> > A) Please let me know what is the difference between these two
> >pointers.
>
> The stack pointer always points to the top (or bottom, if you prefer)
> of the stack. The frame pointer always points to the frame. Stack
> operations (e.g., push, pop, call) do not modify the frame (in a
> properly operating system) or the frame pointer (ever).
>
> >
> > B) When "SP" comes into picture and when "FP" comes into
picture.
>
> The SP comes into the picture when you are mainpulating the stack.
> The FP comes into the picture when you are manipulating the frame.
>
> Regards,
>
> -=Dave
> --
> Change is inevitable, progress is not.
Re: Difference Between Stack Pointer and Frame Pointer - toby - 2005-07-04 04:07:00
Mike Silva wrote:
> ... The SP
> can change while the called function is executing, if for example the
> function dynamically allocates a block of storage on the stack. Thus
> data in the stack frame such as passed parameters and local variables
> cannot reliably be referenced through offsets from the SP, since the SP
> is not guaranteed to have the same value throughout the execution of
> the function.
>
> The FP, OTOH, is guaranteed to have the same value throughout the
> execution of the function, so all local data can be accessed via
> hard-coded offsets from the FP.
The same is usually true of the stack pointer, the most common
exception being while outgoing arguments are being stacked before a
call. Once anything is pushed onto the stack, all SP-relative local
7/29/2019 Stack Pointer Frame Pointer Difference
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stack-pointer-frame-pointer-difference 5/7
frame offsets change. It's much more convenient for compilers in
particular to use an FP with unchanging offsets.
> The FP is set to a fixed value within
> the stack frame, often just past the last passed argument.
>
> Here is an image I found that may be useful. ...
> http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/hosking/502/spim/node23.html
Here's how I diagram the conventional PDP-11 stack layout.
| | higher addresses
+---------------+
| argN |
| ... |
| arg0 | <- FP+4
+---------------+
| link reg | <- FP+2 = SP after JSR
+===============+
| saved FP | <- FP after prologue
+---------------+
/ | locals | <- FP-2
framesize \ | ... |
+---------------+
| saved regs |
| ... | <- SP after prologue
+---------------+
| | lower addresses
Note that local function arguments are at positive offsets from FP,
local variables are at negative offsets. Also note that the framepointer itself is among the callee-saved registers.
See here for a survey of subroutine linkage conventions:
http://www.cs.clemson.edu/~mark/subroutines.html
http://www.cs.clemson.edu/~mark/subroutines/pdp11.html (PDP-11
specific)
and here http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/clcs.html (original
PDP-11 C)
--Toby
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Re: Difference Between Stack Pointer and Frame Pointer - Dave Hansen - 2005-07-05 10:14:00
On 4 Jul 2005 00:53:06 -0700, "toby"
<[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>Dave Hansen wrote:
[...]
>> No. The stack pointer operates on the stack. The frame pointer
>> operates on the frame. Very often, the frame is located in the stack,
>> but it ain't necessarily so.
>
>Care to name a counterexample?
Most AVR compilers have a data stack separate from the hardware stack.
In this case it's on "a" stack, but not "the" stack.
Most 8051 compilers keep call frames completely separate from any
stack. However, functions that use this calling convention are not
reentrant.
I've heard rumors about (but have no experience with) architectures
like IBM's AS/400 that allocate call frames from the heap. The
reasons for this have to do with security, integrity, and
fault-tolerance.
I expect there are more.
Regards,
7/29/2019 Stack Pointer Frame Pointer Difference
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stack-pointer-frame-pointer-difference 6/7
-=Dave
--
Change is inevitable, progress is not.
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Re: Difference Between Stack Pointer and Frame Pointer - Richard - 2005-07-05 10:47:00
> Most AVR compilers have a data stack
separate from the hardware stack.
I'm interested in this statement. The IAR compiler is the only AVR compiler
I have come across that does this, and I've never been sure why. Any clues?
Richard.
http://www.FreeRTOS.org
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Re: Difference Between Stack Pointer and Frame Pointer - Meindert Sprang - 2005-07-05 11:01:00
"Richard" <[email protected]>
wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> > Most AVR compilers have a data stack separate from the hardware stack.
>
> I'm interested in this statement. The IAR compiler is the only AVR
compiler
> I have come across that does this, and I've never been sure why. Any
clues?
Speed. the Imagecraft compiler keeps the hardware stack in internal RAM and
the data stack in external ram when available.
Meindert
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Discussion Groups | Comp.Arch.Embedded | Difference Between Stack Pointer and Frame Pointer
Re: Difference Between Stack Pointer and Frame Pointer - Dave Hansen -2005-07-05 11:20:00
On Tue, 05 Jul 2005 14:47:59 GMT,
"Richard" <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Most AVR compilers have a data stack separate from the hardware stack.
>
>I'm interested in this statement. The IAR compiler is the only AVR compiler
>I have come across that does this, and I've never been sure why. Any clues?
How many AVR compilers have you seen? The only one that _doesn't_
(AFAIK) is avr-gcc.
The primary reason it that direct manipulation of the hardware stack
pointer (SP) in the AVR is non-atomic (eight bits at a time, and
interrupts must be disabled on writes to prevent ISRs from stomping
all over memory), while the data stack pointer can be kept in a 16-bit
general purpose register that supports 16-bit math.
IOW, it makes code generation simpler, and the resulting code is both
faster an smaller.
Regards,
-=Dave
--
Change is inevitable, progress is not.
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