## Microprocessors Lecture 6

### The 6809 Stacks

The 6809 provides two stacks. One is pointed at by the S register (16 bits long) and is known as the system stack pointer, and the other is pointed at by U, being known as the user stack pointer. All subroutine calls and interrupts use the system stack pointer, leaving the user stack pointer at the disposal of the user. We may use U as an index register (rather more powerful than X or Y) or use it to implement a second stack, wnicn is useful for a variety of purposes. Alternatively, the two stacks may be reserved for the use of an operating system or monitor, and the user himself (the O.S. uses EXG to swap them over).

Both stacks in the 6809 build downwards and pop upwards. At any time the stack pointer points at the location above that into which the next byte will be pushed. So, the push sequence is; decrement the stack pointer, then enter the byte where the pointer now points. The pull (or pop) sequence is the direct opposite; the byte is read from the location pointed at by the pointer, and then the pointer is incremented,

e.g. the following are equivalent in function:

                                STA     ,-S        =>      PSHS  A

                                LDA     ,S+        =>      PULS  A

Any information on the stack may be accessed using the indexed addressing mode. The top of the stack may always be looked at using the operand S (or U). Other bytes (or words) on the stack may be accessed using an offset from S or U. This offset may be a constant or be held in a register, A, B or D (a sixteen bit register pair),
e.g:

                                LDA      4,S           ; 5th byte down on stack

                                LDA      B,U           ; U offset by B

The stack pointers themselves may be manipulated using the LEAS and LEAU instructions, which take only the indexed addressing mode. Either stack pointer may be incremented or decremented using these instructions:

                                LEAS      ,S+          ; Increments S

                                LEAU     4,U           ; Adds 4 to U

Many operations may be done directly on data stored on the stack, using the indexed mode, with U or S as the base register (after the comma). To write re-entrant code which uses locations in memory to store temporary variables, it is necessary to allocate this space on the stack to ensure that each invocation of the routine gets a new area of memory for its variables. Variables whose space is allocated way are called "automatic" variables because the actual locations used are automatically allocated each time the routine is called.

The stack may also be used to pass parameters to a routine and to receive the results. The calling routine must allocate space on the stack for the parameters and then call the subroutine. The subroutine then picks up the parameters from the stack, processes them and returns. The calling routine must then fiddle the stack, using LEAS, to restore the stack to its original state. If results are required, the calling routine must also allocate space on the stack for them, and deallocate the space when the subroutine has returned, as for the parameters. The locations for the parameters and results are then reached via a constant offset from S.

## Making the Most of your Stack

The stack has many uses, the most obvious of which is as a Last-In First-Out storage area for subroutine return addresses. It is also very useful for temporarily storing data, to free registers for other uses. Another use of the stack is to enable subroutines to be written which call themselves. Before doing this, the routine must store away any data to be preserved, and then execute the call. On returning from itself (!) it can restore the saved registers by popping them off the stack again. The example which follows illustrates one application of this method.

### Example

In computing, it is often necessary to print out a number in decimal format. As numbers are stored inside the processor in binary form, some kind of conversion is required before the number may be printed. The standard way of converting a number into a string of digits is by successive division by the radix (in this case, 10). The remainders yielded by these divisions are the digits of the converted number, e.g.

                       Number to be converted:       $3F5A

                       Divide by ten:                 $655  remainder 8

                       Divide by ten again:            $A2  remainder 1

                       Divide by ten yet again:        $1O  remainder 2

                       Divide by ten one more time:     $1  remainder 6

                       Positively the last time:        $O  remainder 1

                       So $3F5A, when converted to decimal is 16218

The major drawback to this method is that the digits are not generated in a convenient order. We would like them to be generated most significant digit first, so that we can print them as we produce them, but this method yields the least significant digit first. So we need to reverse the order of the digits before printing them. Needless to say there are many different ways of achieving this end; we could store the digits as a list in memory and then print them out in reverse order, for example.

Another way would be to push the digits onto the stack as we generate them and then pop them off for printing when all the digits have been produced. Both these methods require that we maintain a digit counter to keep track of the number of digits we have generated, and the first method also requires a reserved area of memory for the use of the conversion routine. A third method will be explained below.

### Recursive Binary to Decimal Routine

This is the most elegant way of performing this conversion as it relies only on the stack and registers, and requires no digit counter, nor does it set any limit on the number of digits (beyond that set by the number of bits in a double register). In addition, it automatically gets rid of leading zeros in the number which may be generated by a routine wnich handles a fixed number of digits.

The routine first divides the number by ten and stacks the resulting digit. It then calls itself to print the more significant digits beiore unstacking and printing its own digit. For instance, let us print the decimal number 145 (in binary within the 6809 of course). The routine first divides by ten to yield 14 and a remainder of 5, which it stacks. It then calls itself, passing 14 as the number. The cailed routine divides 14 by ten to yield 1 and a remainder of 4, which it stacks. The third calling of the routine divides 1 by ten to get 0 and a remainder of 1. As the number is now zero, it prints the 1 and returns to its cailer. The caller pops 4, which it stacked previously and prints it before returning to its caller, which pops and prints 5. The first called routine then returns to the routine which originally called it, the task having been accomplished.

### The Program

    ;               Recursive Binary to Decimal Conversion routine.

    ;               The number to be converted is passed in X.

    ;               X returns as zero and A is destroyed.

    ;               The existence of 'divten' and 'outdigit' is assumed

    ;               but the routines are not given here. 'divten'

    ;               divides X by ten, returning the result in X

    ;               and the remainder in A.  'outdigit' outputs the digit

    ;               in A to the terminal or whatever.

    bintodec:       jsr      divten     ; divide X by 10

                    pshs     a          ; save remainder

                    cmpx     #0         ; finished?

                    beq      print      ; if so, print digits

                    jsr      bintodec   ; not done, get next digit

    print:          puls     a          ; retrieve digit

                    jsr      outdigit   ; print it

                    rts                 ; and return

Some features of this program are worth noting:
a) If the number in X is less than 10 a single digit is printed, as required.
b) If the number is zero, a single 0 is printed.
c) For longer numbers, no leading zeros are printed.
d) No memory, apart from the stack, is used by this program, so no memory need be reserved for it.
e) It's nice and simple. No digit counters or fancy are required. The cost... the extra effort of working out a more involved algorithm (you have the recursion to cope with).

### Use of the stack in subroutines

The following notes are for information only. They do not form part of the course

When you start writing real programs, particularly in Machine/Assembly Code you soon discover the need for subroutines. These are sections of code which you want to use over and over again in much the same way that you use procedures in high level languages.

For example in the lab task to write software for the Pelican Crossing you need a delay routine as written in lab session 1

                                  Set traffic lights to AMBER

                                       Delay for 10 secs

                                   Set traffic lights to RED

                                       Delay for 2 secs

                              Set CROSS lights on and beeper on

                                       Delay for 30 secs

                                              etc.

Obviously it would be wasteful in terms of programming time and memory to write out the delay routine each time it is required - ideally we want to write it out once and call it up as needed. This is exactly what we mean by a subroutine.

Jumping to the start of a subroutine is no problem at all - we have seen how branch and jump instructions can be implemented. The problem comes at the end of the subroutine when control has to return to the section of program from which it came.

                                  Set traffic lights to AMBER

                                     Call DELAY subroutine

                                   Set traffic lights to RED

                                     Call DELAY subroutine

                                              etc.

This means that when a subroutine is called the processor must somehow store the address to which control should return - in other words the address of the instruction which follows the call subroutine instruction. There are many ways in which this problem has been tackled.

1. Using programmed instructions - The programmer writes instructions before the jump to a subroutine which store away the contents of the program counter (with a correction added). At the end of the subroutine an instruction which causes a jump to this stored address is used. The problem with this is that the programmer has to remember to do this and it results in a lot 6f repeated program steps. (Used in a number of early computers).
2. Dedicated Processor Register - The processor has a special register which stores the return address. This is a simple approach which means the programmer doesn't have to worry at all about it. A special instruction 'Jump to subroutine' stores the program counter and jumps to the address specified. Another special instruction 'Return from subroutine, simply copies the return address back into the program counter. The major disadvantage is that you cannot have nested subroutines, i.e. subroutines calling other subroutines, which in practice you find you frequently want to. To do this you have to store the return address register and then load it again. This is effectively returning to method 1. (Used in TMS1000, 3870 and F8).
3. Processor Register Stack - The way round the problem of method 2 is to have a number of return address registers in the processor working as a Last in First Out memory (LIFO). In order to implement this an aditional register is needed which keeps track of which register is the next to be used. For example if the processor has 8 such registers then a 3 bit pointer register is required. This will initially contain 000 indicating that register 0 should be used. When a JSR is executed the return address is stored in register 000 and the pointer incremented to 001. When an RTS instruction is executed the pointer is first decremented and then the return address retrieved.

                            1000 JSR $1200             000        0000

                            1003 Next Inst                        0000

                                 :                                0000

       			  :

                            1200 Start of SR1          001        1003

                                 :                                0000

                                 :                                0000

                            122A JSR $13A0

                            122D Next Inst             001        1003

                                 :                                0000

                            1235 RTS                              0000

                            13A0 Start of SR2          002        1003

                                 :                                122D

                                 :                                0000

                            13D8 RTS

   The disadvantage of this approach is the that no matter how many registers are provided people will always want more and it adds to the processor complexity. The advantage is that it is fast since all transfers are internal to the processor. (A number of Intel processors such as 8048 have used this approach).
4. Stack in Memory - This approach is very similar to the previous one except that instead of using internal registers the return addresses are stored in memory registers. The pointer (3 bit in the above example) becomes 16 bits (or the appropriate number for an address register). At the beginning of the program the Stack Pointer is loaded with the address of the start of the memory area which is to be used for this purpose. In fact, for no discernable reason, the stack pointer works down in memory rather than up so the stack pointer should be set to the top or highest address of the stack area. Obviously this must be in RAM for the system to work.

   Since addresses are 16 bits and memory locations in 6809 can only store 8 bits two locations are need to store each return address. The exact sequence of events when a JSR is executed are. E.g. If SP is initialised to $2000

                                (SP)-1  ->     SP          $2000-1 = $1FFF  ->      SP

                                (PCL)   ->     (SP)        $03 -> $1FFF

                                (SP)-1  ->     SP          $1FFF-1 = $1FFE  ->      SP

                                (PCH)   ->     (SP)        $10 -> $1FFE

   When an RTS is executed the reverse process takes place

                                ((SP))  ->     PCH         ($1FFE)      = $10   ->  PCH

                                (SP)+l  ->     SP          $1FFE + 1    = $1FFF ->  SP

                                ((SP))  ->     PCL         ($1FFF)      = $03   ->  PCL

                                (SP)+l  ->     SP          $1FFF + 1    = $2000 ->  SP

   Using this technique the user can allocate as much space as is necessary for the return address stack. Notice, though that there are no set boundaries so that if you had:-

                                $1000 JSR $1000

   The whole of memory would be quickly used up by the stack. This is an obvious situation which can be easily avoided but there are more subtle ones which can have the same effect.

   There is no standardisation between processors as to the order in which the H and L bytes of the PC are stored. Nor is the pre-decrement, post increment for JSR and RTS fixed.

   Nevertheless this is the method of handling return addresses which is used in all 8 & 16 bit processors these days. Its only disadvantage is the length of time it takes to store the address bytes in external memory,

### Other uses of the Stack

There is another problem that we encounter as soon as we start using subroutines and this is that subroutines usually use the accumulators and other registers in the processor to accomplish their tasks. This means that when control returns to the main program the register contents is different. Although the programmer can often take account of this it would be much more convenient if the subroutine didn't corrupt the register values.

One solution is for the subroutine to store away the register contents in set memory locations before using them and to retrieve these values before returning. The problem is where should these values be stored? Ideally we are writing subroutines which can be used in many different programs or we may even be using other peoples or commercially available routines. If set memory locations are used they may clash with program or data areas in another application.

A better solution is to use the stack which the user always sets to be in an unwanted area of memory. At the start of the routine the contents of any registers which will be changed is stored on the stack and they are retrieved before the RTS is executed. Putting data onto the stack is known as Pushing data and retrieving it is known as Pulling. The 6809 has instructions for doing this known as Push (PSH) and Pull (PUL) - the codes for these are 34 and 35. Each of these has an additional instruction byte which indicates which registers are to be stored or retrieved as follows:-

                        LSBit 0   -  Condition Code Register

                              1   -  Accumulator A

                              2   -  Accumulator B

                              3   -  Direct Page Register

                              4   -  Index Register X

                              5   -  Index Register Y

                              6   -  Stack Pointer

                        MSBit 7   -  Program Counter

Notice that the first four are 8 bit registers requiring only one byte to be stored and that the last four are 16 bit registers requiring two bytes to be stored.

It is rarely necessary to store the PC and SP on the stack and obviously the more registers stored the longer the instruction takes (It's 5 cycles + 1 for each byte - 17 max).

                   34 Pushes all registers        34 Pushes A and X

                   FF                             12

Clearly the number of bytes pushed at the start of the subroutine must equal the number of bytes pulled at the end otherwise the return address will not be correct and the program will crash. To avoid this happening the 6809 provides two stack pointers U and S, the User and System stack pointers. The JSR and RTS always use the S pointer but the Push and Pull instructions can use either. If the User stack is always used then there is little chance of the return address being corrupted. The codes given are for the system stack but the user stack works in the same way.

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