GATE CS 2015 Set 3 — Question 40

Consider a processor with byte-addressable memory. Assume that all registers, including Program Counter (PC) and Program Status Word (PSW), are of size 2 bytes. A stack in the main memory is implemented from memory location \((0100)_{16}\) and it grows upward. The stack pointer (SP) points to the top element of the stack. The current value of SP is \((016\text{E})_{16}\). The CALL instruction is of two words, the first word is the op-code and the second word is the starting address of the subroutine (one word = 2 bytes). The CALL instruction is implemented as follows:

• Store the current value of PC in the stack
• Store the value of PSW register in the stack
• Load the starting address of the subroutine in PC

The content of PC just before the fetch of a CALL instruction is \((5\text{F}\text{A}0)_{16}\). After execution of the CALL instruction, the value of the stack pointer is