Question

I think I understand the basic of stack memory, but I still do not fully understand which is responsible for the mechanism for the way managing the stack – is it the compiler, the cpu architecture? is it programming language dependent?

For example, I read that in ARM there is tendency to reduce the use of stack in function calls, so arguments to functions are usually passed through 4 registers. However, it seems to me that this can be implemented using general purpose registers in other cpu’s as well. How can the architecture impose this demand?

Elsewhere I read that in FORTRAN 77 there is no use of the stack.

And there is the question of the stack growing upwards/downwards. who is responsible for it?

Overall I wish to know is it cpu dependent and how is it imposed? otherwise which is responsible for these decisions?

Thanks.

Answer 1

It can’t be imposed by the processor. Calling conventions are determined by the compiler, and most compilers will not break their language standard just to do this.

The growth direction of the stack is determined by the processor as long as the process uses things like push/pop. If they access esp directly, they should follow, but don’t have too.