SolarisSPARC Stack Frame Introduction

Solaris/SPARC Stack Frame Introduction

The stack frame on Solaris/SPARC is similar in organization to that of most other platforms. The stack grows down, as on Intel x86, and contains space for both local variables and saved registers (see Table 10.7). The minimum amount of stack reserve space for any given function in a 32-bit binary would be 96 bytes. This is the amount of space necessary to save the eight local and eight input registers, plus 32 bytes of additional space. This additional space contains room for a returned structure pointer and space for saved copies of arguments in case they must be addressed (if a pointer to them must be passed to another function). The stack frame for any function is organized so that the space reserved for local variables is located closer to the top of the stack than the space reserved for saved registers. This precludes the possibility of a function overwriting its own saved registers.

Top of stack “ Higher memory addresses

Function 1

Space reserved for local variables

Size: Variable

Function 1

Space reserved for return structure

pointer and argument copies.

Size: 32 bytes

Function 1

Space reserved for saved registers

Size: 64 bytes

Bottom of stack “ Lower memory addresses

The stack is generally populated with structures and arrays, but not with integers and pointers as is the case on x86 platforms. Integers and pointers are stored in general-purpose registers in most cases, unless the number needed exceeds available registers or they must be addressable.