(Note: This needs to be filled in.)
A calling sequence is a contract between two blocks of code, a call site (within a caller) and and entry point (within a callee).
The contract governs the transfer of control to the caller, and its eventual return to the caller (or a successor version of the caller). The contract is specific to some function type agreed on between the caller and callee. The type may require data values to be passed between the caller and callee, using certain registers or other variable locations.
Registers and Stack
Native
The CPU (x86, SPARC), word size (ILP32, LP64), and OS (Windows, Solaris, Linux) together determine how native (C-style) calls are made. On systems which support argument registers, leftward arguments are packed into registers until the registers run out, and then stack locations are used. On ILP32 systems, longs and doubles are passed as pairs of 32-bit arguments.
value |
x86_32 |
x86_64 |
sparc (W=4/8) |
|---|---|---|---|
native sp |
ESP |
RSP |
O6 |
return pc |
ESP(0) |
RSP(0) |
O7 |
int result |
EAX |
RAX |
O0 |
long result |
<EDX:EAX> |
RAX |
<O0:O1> / O0 |
float result |
FPR1 |
XMM0 |
F0 |
reg. int args |
none |
(see below) |
O0..O5 |
reg. long args |
none |
same as ints |
int pairs / ints |
reg. float args |
none |
(see below) |
none / F0..F15 |
stack arg #i |
ESP(4+i*4) |
RSP(8+i*8) |
SP(92/176+i*W) |
sp alignment |
16 bytes |
16 bytes |
2*W bytes |
On x86 LP64 systems, as many as the first 6 non-float and first 8 float arguments are allocated to registers.
reg. arg |
int#0 |
int#1 |
int#2 |
int#3 |
int#4 |
int#5 |
float regs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Windows |
RCX |
RDX |
R8 |
R9 |
none |
none |
XMM0..XMM3 |
Lin/Sol |
RDI |
RSI |
RDX |
RCX |
R8 |
R9 |
XMM0..XMM7 |
Interpreted
The top entries of the interpreter stack are used to marshal arguments. The leftmost argument (which is the method receiver if there is one) is the first one pushed, and therefore is deepest in the stack. The callee gets an argument pointer to the most recently pushed argument (which is the rightmost).
The native registers are used for the return PC and return values. On x86, the argument pointer is cleverly overloaded on the native stack pointer. On other systems, the argument pointer is passed in a separate register. In any case, the outgoing native stack pointer is passed and recorded separately during any interpreter call.
value |
x86_32 |
x86_64 |
sparc (W=4/8) |
|---|---|---|---|
interp. method |
EBX |
RBX |
G5 |
interp. arg ptr |
ESP+4 |
RSP+8 |
G4 |
interp. saved sp |
ESI |
RSI |
O5 |
Certain registers may be reserved, by both the interpreter and compiler, to refer to current thread and the base of the heap (if compressed oops are enabled).
value |
x86_32 |
x86_64 |
sparc (W=4/8) |
|---|---|---|---|
JavaThread |
none |
R15 |
G2 |
HeapBase |
none |
R12 |
none/G6 |
The following interpreter register assignments do not participate in calling conventions, but are given here for reference. Note that the Java stack pointer is the native stack pointer on x86 systems.
value |
x86_32 |
x86_64 |
sparc (W=4/8) |
|---|---|---|---|
interp. java sp |
ESP |
RSP |
L0 |
interp. fp |
EBP |
RBP |
none |
(what else?) |
|
|
|
Compiled
Compiled method calls are designed, like native calls, to get the job done in the fewest possible machine cycles.
TO DO: Define inline caches, etc.
value |
x86_32 |
x86_64 |
sparc (W=4/8) |
|---|---|---|---|
java int args |
ECX, EDX |
j_rarg0..5 |
O0..O5 |
java long args |
none |
same asints |
G1,G4 / O0..O5 |
java float args |
XMM0, XMM1 |
j_farg0..7 |
F0..F7 |
inline cache |
EAX |
RAX |
G5 |
For compiled code, the integer register assignments are different between Java and C. They are shifted to allow JNI wrappers to insert an extra leading argument without moving arguments around.
reg. arg |
int#0 |
int#1 |
int#2 |
int#3 |
int#4 |
int#5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Windows, Java |
RDX |
R8 |
R9 |
RDI |
RSI |
RCX |
Lin/Sol, Java |
RSI |
RDX |
RCX |
R8 |
R9 |
RDI |
C argument |
C #1 |
C #2 |
C #3 |
C #4 |
C #5 |
C #0 |