Sample Code

Imagine that the following statement is part of the subroutine whose stack frame is at right:

a = b + i + j;

This is how a compiler might implement that statement:

lw    $t0,8($fp)     # get b
lw    $t1,4($fp)     # get i
lw    $t2,0($fp)     # get j
addu  $t3,$t0,$t1    # b + i
addu  $t3,$t3,$t2    # b + i + j
sw    $t3,12($fp)    # a =    

The particular registers used to temporarily hold values from the local variables are arbitrary. In another section of code, a different register might be used with variable b than is used here.