🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <767@ark.UUCP>, gijs@ark.UUCP (Gijs Mos) writes:
> You cannot do virtual memory, you cannot auto-allocate stack space, but you
> *can* do multitasking. 

You can TOO do auto-allocation of stack space with a vanilla 68000, an
MMU, and appropriate compiler support.  Sun did this (I think) in the
Sun-1.  Forgive me if this is pedantic:

Part of each procedure setup (along with the LINK) is a "probe"
instruction (TST.B, say) that tests to see if enough stack is
available to hold the entire local stack frame plus a reasonable
number of arguments.  If there is enough, the TST.B works.  If there
isn't enough stack space, the TST.B will generate a bus error which
signals the OS to increase the stack.  The TST instruction can be
thrown away, since nothing else depends on it.

	_foo:	link	a6,#8		; make room for local args
		tst.b	-208(sp)	; ensure enough stack
		.
		.
		.

Of course this isn't very transparent if you are programming in
assembly language.  But in that case you deserve to suffer.  :->

-- 

-Landon Dyer, Atari Corp.		{sun,lll-lcc,lll-crg!vecpyr}!atari!dyer

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