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From: appel@cs.Princeton.EDU (Andrew Appel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mips
Subject: Re: Desperately Seeking Bltzal and Bgezal.
Keywords: bltzal bgezal
Message-ID: <2509@rossignol.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 7 Sep 90 03:47:42 GMT
References: <1179@cluster.cs.su.oz>
Sender: news@cs.Princeton.EDU
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, Princeton University
Lines: 6

The "Standard ML of New Jersey" compiler generates position-independent 
code (useful, because code is moved around by the garbage collector).
To do this, it is sometimes necessary to get the PC into a register.
A failing bltzal (BLTZAL r0,anywhere) is a convenient way to do this.
On the SPARC, which has no such instruction, we must stand on our heads
to do it.