Storage Management

Different features in a language causes different storage management techniques to be used.

FORTRAN: no recursive calls, no dynamic storage management. Pascal: stack-based storage management. LISP: garbage collection. Language implementers decide about the details. Programmers dont know about it.
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Major Run-Time Elements Requiring Storage

Data Operations

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Data and program Requiring Storage

Code segments for translated user programs.
System run-time programs.
Supporting user programs. Like library routines, software interpreters or translator, storage management routines.

User-defined data structures and constants. Subprogram return points.

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Data and program Requiring Storage

Referencing environments.
Identifier associations (LISP A-list)

Temporaries in expression evaluation.

Recursive function calls make it a lot.

Temporaries in parameter transmission.

Resulting values for evaluation of actual parameters are stored in temporaries until the total evaluation is completed.

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Data and program Requiring Storage

Input-output buffers.
Temporary storage areas used between the time of the actual physical transfer of the data to or from external storage and the program-initiated input / output operation.

Miscellaneous system data.

System data like tables, status information for input-output, ...

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Storage organization
Subdivision of Runtime Memory
Typical subdivision of runtime memory into code and data areas
code
Static data stack The generated target code; Data objects; A counterpart of the control stack to keep track of procedure activations

heap
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Storage allocation strategies

Storage allocation strategies are as follows:
Static allocation
Lays out storage for all data objects at compile time.

Stack allocation
Manages the run-time storage as a stack.

Heap allocation
Allocates and de-allocates storage as needed at run time from a heap.
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Static allocation
Names are bound to storage as the program is compiled, so there is no need for a run-time support package. Since the bindings do not change at run time, Every time a procedure is activated, Its names are bound to the same storage locations.

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Some Limitations The size of a data object and constraints on its position in memory must be known at compile time.

Recursive procedures are restricted, because all activations of a procedure use the same bindings for local name.
Data structures cannot be created dynamically.
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Heap allocation
A separate area of run-time memory, called a heap.
Heap allocation parcels out pieces of contiguous storage, as needed for activation records or other objects. Pieces may be deallocated in any order.
I -11 J -11 X 0 A -21

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Heap allocation is useful if either of the following is possible. 1. The value of local names must be retained when an activation ends. 2. A called activation outlives the caller.

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Main idea Based on the idea of a control stack; storage is organized as a stack, and activation records are pushed and popped as activations begin and end, respectively. Storage for the locals in each call of a procedure is contained in the activation record for that call. Locals are bound to fresh storage in each activation
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i is bounded to the most recently created i

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Binding of names
Same name may denote different data objects (i.e., locations) at runtime Two mapping are used
Environment
maps a name to a storage (or binding of a name to a storage)

State
maps storage to value
environment
state

name
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locatio n
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value

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Procedure, Activation and Lifetime

A procedure is activated when called
The lifetime of an activation of a procedure is the sequence of steps between the first and last steps in the execution of the procedure body A procedure is recursive if a new activation can begin before an earlier activation of the same procedure has ended
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Activation Records/Frames
A contiguous block of storage that stores information needed by a single execution of a procedure A general activation record
Returned value Actual parameters Optional control link Optional access link Saved machine status Local data temporaries The value that the callee return to caller Used by the caller to supply parameters to the callee Point to the activation record of the

caller Refer to non-local data held in other activation records/fixed place Information about the state of the machine just before the procedure Data that is local to the execution is called of a procedure Such as those values in the evaluation of expressions

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Activation Trees
Activation trees
Represents the activations of procedures during program execution using a tree

Activation of procedure Execution of a procedure body Lifetime of activation

Sequence of steps between first and last statements Non-overlapping, nested activation, Recursive
if a new activation can begin before an earlier activation of the same procedure has ended.

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Activation Trees A tree to depict the control flow enters and leaves activation of a procedure Enter f(4) Enter f(2) f(4) Enter f(3) Enter f(1) Enter f(2) Leave f(1) Enter f(1) Enter f(0) f(3) f(2) Leave f(1) Leave f(0) Enter f(0) Leave f(2) Leave f(0) Leave f(4) f(2) f(1) f(1) f(0) Leave f(2) Enter f(1) Leave f(1) f(1) f(0) Leave f(3)

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parent Occurs first

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 Each node represents an activation of a procedure The root represents the activation of the main program The node for a is the parent of the node for b if and only if the control flows from activation of a to b, and The node for a is to the left of the node for b if and only if the lifetime of a occurs before the lifetime of b.
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Control Flow
The control flow in a program P corresponds to depth-first traversal of activation tree
Starts at the root Visits a node before its children Recursively visits children at each node from leftto-right The sequence of procedure calls corresponds to a preorder traversal of the activation tree The sequence of returns corresponds to postorder traversal of the activation tree
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Sequences of Calls and Returns

Procedures calls implemented by calling Sequences Calling sequences consists of code that allocates an activation record on the stack by entering information into the fields Return sequences same as code to calling sequences
They restore the state of the machine in a way that the caller can continue its execution

Code in calling sequences divided between Caller and Callee In general, if procedure p calls Procedure q
The activation of q terminates normally The activation of q aborts and p ends at the same time The activation of q terminates due to some exception. The procedure p may or may not terminate

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Activation Records: Control Stack (or run-time Stack)

Control stack (run-time stack)
Keeps track of live procedure activation (or FRAME)

Where the root of the activation tree is at the bottom of the stack
Having node nj on the top of the stack means There exists a path in Activation tree from node nj to the root E.g,
<root,,ni, nj>

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e.g., If control is currently in the activation write() of the tree, then activation record for write() is at the top of the control stack. Below it is the activation record for output(), and the bottom is the activation record for main()
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 In this example, as is true in general, procedure activations are nested in time. If an activation of procedure p calls procedure q, then that activation of q must end before the activation of p can end. There are three common cases: 1. The activation of q terminates normally. Then in essentially any language, control resumes just after the point of p at which the call to q was made. 2. The activation of q, or some procedure q called, either directly or indirectly, aborts; i.e., it becomes impossible for execution to continue. In that case, p ends simultaneously with q. 3. The activation of q terminates because of an exception that q cannot handle. Procedure p may handle the exception, in which case the activation of q has terminated while the activation of p continues, although not necessarily from the point at which the call to q was made. If p cannot handle the exception, then this activation of p terminates at the same time as the activation of q, and presumably the exception will be handled by some other open activation of a procedure

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Designing Calling Sequences

Values communicated between caller and callee are generally placed at the beginning of callees activation record
Fixed-length items: are generally placed at the middle Items whose size may not be known early enough: are placed at the end of activation record We must locate the top-of-stack pointer judiciously: a common approach is to have it point to the end of fixed length fields.
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Calling Sequence
The caller evaluates the actual parameters The caller stores a return address and the old value of top-sp into the callee's activation record. The callee saves the register values and other status information.

The callee initializes its local data and begins execution.

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Implementing Variable Length Data layout on Stack: Another Example

Procedure p calls procedure q P has three local arrays Sizes of arrays are not determined at compile time

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Access to dynamically allocated arrays (NOTE: Here the top of the stack is downwards)

Ref. Text book

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Top and top-sp pointers

Top - marks the actual top of the stack ( next activation record will begin at this location)
Top-sp - locates the fixed length fields of the top activation record These are restored from the saved control link in the activation record of the called function
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Reposition of top and top-sp

Positions of these pointers is computed in terms of sizes that will be known at run time Code to reposition these is generated at compile time

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Better Alternative
Allocate dynamic data on heap Maintain only the address of the allocated memory (fixed ) [heap memory management will be discussed later while discussion on garbage collection]

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Static versus dynamic memory allocation

Static
Storage allocation decision is static if it can be made by the compiler only by looking at the source code text example: all variables of fixed size struct sample { int x, y; float u,v,w;}

Dynamic
Storage allocation decision is dynamic if it is based on execution of the program e.g. (1) allocation of memory (heap) through malloc() etc (2) allocation of memory (stack) during function calls
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Access Links:
Nested procedure definitions (Example language-only looks like C)
fun1() { integer a,b,c; a=2;b=3;c=4; integer fun2() { integer c,d,e; c=5;d=7; e=a+b+c+d; return e; } }
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fun2 needs to access values of a and b c is redefined in fun 2 fun2: Locals : c,d,e fun1: Locals : a,b,c Access link is required C does not require this feature as the scope of variables is within the function definition
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c=5 Activation record of fun2() xFFD 0 xFFD d=7

Link(=xFFFC for example) to access values a,b

The nesting depth of 1 is handled here

4 xFFD 8 xFFD
C xFFE 0 xFFE

Control links-to fun1

Returned value e Actual parameter -none

a=2
b=3 c=4 Access link-none Control link to self/driver Returned values-none Actual parameter - none Fixed variables

Activation record of fun1()

4 xFFE 8 xFFE C xFFF 0 xFFF 4 xFFF 8 xFFF

C
NOTE: 1. Sizes of the activation records for different functions are different 2. Some fields are common in Professional University, records 10/18/2012 Lovely all activation

An example : Let the nesting depth of p be np

q() { int b w(){ int d; .f(){ int e; .. s(){ p(){ int a; a=b+d+e; }

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Assuming b,c,d are not redefined

Whose activation record is at the top?

p() (at nesting depth np) needs to access different activation records Activation Record of p() Activation Record of s() Activation Record of f() Activation Record of w() Activation Record of q()

np >=nq

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