branch-and-link

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Article #10979

#10979

From: Dan Swartzendruber
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1992 17:54

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1007 bytes

Here's a question for the hardware types: is there any reason either of
design complexity or performance to not have *all* branches (conditional
and unconditional) save their origin somewhere (probably in a fast
dedicated register)?  I know various cpu's (the rs6000?) have done this
in the past, but only as an option.  If there is no negative impact to
doing this, it would be a real win for debugging crashes where a program
(application or kernel) branch off to nowhere and die - and the poor S/W
type is left guessing...

-- 

#include <std_disclaimer.h>

Dan S.

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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!ferkel.ucsb.edu!taco!rock!concert!gatech!emory!wupost!spool.mu.edu!hri.com!noc.near.net!transfer.stratus.com!sw.stratus.com!dswartz
From: dswartz@sw.stratus.com (Dan Swartzendruber)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: branch-and-link
Message-ID: <1hkqk3INNsns@transfer.stratus.com>
Date: 27 Dec 92 17:54:11 GMT
Organization: Stratus Computer, Inc.
Lines: 14
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