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A typical stack is an area of computer memory with a fixed origin and a variable size. Initially the size of the stack is zero. A stack pointer (usually in the form of a processor register) points to the most recently referenced location on the stack; when the stack has a size of zero, the stack pointer points to the origin of the stack.
A typical stack, storing local data and call information for nested procedure calls (not necessarily nested procedures). This stack grows downward from its origin. The stack pointer points to the current topmost datum on the stack. A push operation decrements the pointer and copies the data to the stack; a pop operation copies data from the ...
8 (includes program counter and stack pointer, though any register can act as stack pointer) Variable (16-, 32-, or 48-bit) Condition code Little Extended Instruction Set, Floating Instruction Set, Floating Point Processor, Commercial Instruction Set No No POWER, PowerPC, Power ISA: 32/64 (32→64) 3.1 [30] 1990 3 (mostly). FMA, LD/ST-Update
This type of stack is also known as an execution stack, program stack, control stack, run-time stack, or machine stack, and is often shortened to simply the "stack". Although maintenance of the call stack is important for the proper functioning of most software , the details are normally hidden and automatic in high-level programming languages .
The stack segment register (SS) is usually used to store information about the memory segment that stores the call stack of currently executed program. SP points to current stack top. By default, the stack grows downward in memory, so newer values are placed at lower memory addresses. To save a value to the stack, the PUSH instruction
Since the base is set to 0 in all cases and the limit 4 GiB, the segmentation unit does not affect the addresses the program issues before they arrive at the paging unit. (This, of course, refers to 80386 and later processors, as the earlier x86 processors do not have a paging unit.) Current Linux also uses GS to point to thread-local storage.
The instruction counter is at the lower left. The program counter ( PC ), [ 1 ] commonly called the instruction pointer ( IP ) in Intel x86 and Itanium microprocessors , and sometimes called the instruction address register ( IAR ), [ 2 ] [ 1 ] the instruction counter , [ 3 ] or just part of the instruction sequencer, [ 4 ] is a processor ...
Stack pointer: Points to thread's stack in the process; Program counter: Points to the current program instruction of the thread; State of the thread (running, ready, waiting, start, done) Thread's register values; Pointer to the Process control block (PCB) of the process that the thread lives on