Method and system for stack memory alignment utilizing recursion

Abstract

A method and system for enhancing operating system efficiency in a data processing system by ensuring alignment of stack memory at a multi-byte boundary such that multi-byte data fetch operations may be utilized to efficiently retrieve data from the stack memory. At each invocation of an operating system procedure from an application within a data processing system, a stack memory pointer is examined to determine if stack memory contents including passed parameters and local variables to be allocated onto the stack memory will be aligned at a multi-byte boundary. In response to a prospective nonalignment of local variables, the operating system procedure is recursively invoked with an additional "dummy" parameter, such that stack memory contents will be aligned at a multi-byte boundary. Thereafter, the operating system will automatically align data within the stack memory at a multi-byte boundary so that the data may be efficiently stored and retrieved utilizing multi-byte data operations.

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