Back to main()

In this example, main() did not save any "T" registers. There is nothing to do for the return from the subroutine, other than use the value that was returned in $v0.

#  main()
#  {
#    int a;                      // a: 0($fp)
#    a = mysub( 6 );
#    print( a );
#  }
         .text
         .globl  main
main:
                                  # prolog        
         sub     $sp,$sp,4        #   1. Push return address
         sw      $ra,($sp)
         sub     $sp,$sp,4        #   2. Push caller's frame pointer
         sw      $fp,($sp)
                                  #   3. No S registers to push
         sub     $fp,$sp,4        #   4. $fp = $sp - space_for_variables
         move    $sp,$fp          #   5. $sp = $fp

                                  # subroutine call
                                  #   1. No T registers to push
         li      $a0,6            #   2. Put argument into $a0
         jal     mysub            #   3. Jump and link to subroutine

                                  # return from subroutine 
                                  #   1. No T registers to restore
                                  
         sw     $v0,__(___)       # a = mysub( 6 )
        
                                  # print a
         lw     $a0,__(___)       # load a into $a0
         li     $v0,1             # print integer service
         syscall
                                   
                                  # epilog
                                  #   1. No return value         
         add     $sp,$fp,4        #   2. $sp = $fp + space_for_variables       
                                  #   3. No S registers to pop      
         lw      $fp,($sp)        #   4. Pop $fp
         add     $sp,$sp,4        #           
         lw      $ra,($sp)        #   5. Pop $ra
         add     $sp,$sp,4        #                                    
         jr      $ra              # return to OS