The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 22, 2003
Filed:
Oct. 06, 1997
Urs Hölzle, Goleta, CA (US);
Robert Griesemer, Menlo Park, CA (US);
Sun Microsystems, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
Methods and apparatus for efficiently enabling an alternate return address associated with a function call to essentially be stored such that the alternate return address may be readily accessed are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, a method for enabling a return address associated with a function called by a routine to be efficiently stored includes calling the function from within the routine while the routine is executing. In general, the function is external to the routine. The function, once called, begins executing. Eventually, the function returns to the routine. Specifically, the function returns to a location in the routine that is identified by an expected return point, or normal return address. The instruction in the routine that corresponds to the expected return point is a dummy instruction that executes with a low computational overhead but does not affect program execution. When the called function is to return to an alternate return point, it obtains the address by reading data embedded in the dummy instruction.