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From: bruce@cs.su.oz (Bruce Janson)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: register save
Message-ID: <2186@cluster.cs.su.oz.au>
Date: 12 Mar 91 10:19:53 GMT
Sender: news@cluster.cs.su.oz.au
Reply-To: bruce@cluster.cs.su.oz (Bruce Janson)
Lines: 28

In article <1353@ncis.tis.llnl.gov> turner@lance.tis.llnl.gov (Michael Turner) writes:
>..
>.. maybe there's an idea--instead of optimizing architectures
>around how code *is*, perhaps it would make sense to look at how code
>*should* be.  Personally, I wouldn't mind using a machine that
>grossly penalized subroutines with more than 4 parameters, in exchange
>for some slightly greater reward for using fewer, because I seldom write
>..

The MIPS compilers put the first 4 words of integer arguments into
registers $4..$7 (aka a0-a3) and the first 2 single or double precision
arguments into floating point registers $f12 and $f14.
[See pp. D-2 and D-3 of the mips RISC ARCHITECTURE book by Gerry Kane.]
Apparently the MIPS people do a lot of simulation and measurement,
they may even have done the tests that you were considering...

Cheers,
bruce.

Bruce Janson
Basser Department of Computer Science
University of Sydney
Sydney, N.S.W., 2006
AUSTRALIA

Internet:	bruce@cs.su.oz.au
Telephone:	+61-2-692-3272
Fax:		+61-2-692-3838