Looking at the source, there are at least 5 different ABIs in mips.c. I believe Sony has designed another ABI for use in the PSP system, but those sources are not integrated at the FSF. I don't recall which ABIs P&H describes in their book. Note, GCC can use a frame pointer if it has allocates variable size auto variables, or if the user directs it with -fno-omit-frame-pointer. -----Original Message----- From: gcc-help-owner@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:gcc-help-owner@xxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Nelson H. F. Beebe Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2005 4:02 PM To: Mad Props; gcc-help@xxxxxxxxxxx Cc: beebe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: MIPS calling conventions "Mad Props" <madprops@xxxxxxx> asks on Wed, 10 Aug 2005 15:55:12 +0200 (MEST) about the calling conventions used by gcc on the MIPS architecture. An excellent resource that I strongly recommend that you get is this recent book: @String{pub-MORGAN-KAUFMANN = "Morgan Kaufmann Publishers"} @String{pub-MORGAN-KAUFMANN:adr = "2929 Campus Drive, Suite 260, San Mateo, CA 94403, USA"} @Book{Patterson:2004:COH, author = "David A. Patterson and John L. Hennessy", title = "Computer Organization: The Hardware\slash Software Interface", publisher = pub-MORGAN-KAUFMANN, address = pub-MORGAN-KAUFMANN:adr, edition = "Third", pages = "xvii + 621", year = "2004", ISBN = "1-55860-604-1", ISBN-13 = "978-1-55860-604-3", LCCN = "QA76.9.C643 H46 2004", bibdate = "Mon Nov 15 16:01:50 2004", price = "US\$64.95", acknowledgement = ack-nhfb, } There are two conventions used by compilers on the MIPS architecture for argument passing: one keeps a constant frame pointer within each procedure, addressing local variables at constant offset from the frame pointer (native SGI IRIX compilers do this), and the other dispenses with the frame pointer, and uses only the stack pointer, which changes during execution of the procedure, and thus variable offsets change as well (gcc does this). This is described on pp. 86ff of the above book, and in Appendix A, which is not printed, but is on the book's CD-ROM inside the back cover. The CD also contains the SPIM simulator for the MIPS architecture, but a newer version is now available here: http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~larus/spim.html http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~larus/SPIM/spim.tar.gz With the book and the simulator, you should then have the tools you need for your work with gcc on MIPS. Other resources include these books: @String{pub-PH = "Pren{\-}tice-Hall"} @String{pub-PH:adr = "Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458, USA"} @Book{Kane:MRA92, author = "Gerry Kane and Joe Heinrich", title = "{MIPS RISC} Architecture", publisher = pub-PH, address = pub-PH:adr, year = "1992", ISBN = "0-13-590472-2", ISBN-13 = "978-0-13-590472-5", LCCN = "QA76.8.M52 K37 1992", bibdate = "Wed Dec 15 10:35:45 1993", } @Book{Sweetman:1999:SMR, author = "Dominic Sweetman", title = "See {MIPS} run", publisher = pub-MORGAN-KAUFMANN, address = pub-MORGAN-KAUFMANN:adr, pages = "xviii + 488", year = "1999", ISBN = "1-55860-410-3", ISBN-13 = "978-1-55860-410-0", LCCN = "QA76.9.A73 S88 1999", bibdate = "Thu Jun 20 10:21:55 2002", price = "US\$52.95, UK\pounds 35.95", acknowledgement = ack-nhfb, keywords = "MIPS (Computer architecture); RISC microprocessors; Embedded computer systems --- Programming", libnote = "Not yet in my library.", } and these manuals: http://www.mips.com/Documentation/R4400_Uman_book_Ed2.pdf http://www.ece.mtu.edu/faculty/rmkieckh/cla/3175/MIPS-R10K-uman1.pdf http://www.mips.com/Documentation/MIPSPro_Ass._Lang_Vol1.pdf http://www.mips.com/Documentation/MIPSPro_Ass._Lang_Vol2.pdf ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------- - Nelson H. F. Beebe Tel: +1 801 581 5254 - - University of Utah FAX: +1 801 581 4148 - - Department of Mathematics, 110 LCB Internet e-mail: beebe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx - - 155 S 1400 E RM 233 beebe@xxxxxxx beebe@xxxxxxxxxxxx - - Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0090, USA URL: http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------
