14 lines
2.3 KiB
HTML
14 lines
2.3 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>register dancing</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../R.html" title="R"/><link rel="previous" href="regexp.html" title="regexp"/><link rel="next" href="rehi.html" title="rehi"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">register dancing</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="regexp.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">R</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="rehi.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="register-dancing"/><dt xmlns="" id="register-dancing"><b>register dancing</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> Many older processor architectures suffer from a serious shortage of
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general-purpose registers. This is especially a problem for
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compiler-writers, because their generated code needs places to store
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temporaries for things like intermediate values in expression evaluation.
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Some designs with this problem, like the Intel 80x86, do have a handful of
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special-purpose registers that can be pressed into service, providing
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suitable care is taken to avoid unpleasant side effects on the state of the
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processor: while the special-purpose register is being used to hold an
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intermediate value, a delicate minuet is required in which the previous
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value of the register is saved and then restored just before the official
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function (and value) of the special-purpose register is again
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needed.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="regexp.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../R.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="rehi.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">regexp </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> rehi</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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