ii DEDICATION To my parents and my sister .

RAMACHANDRAN, SHANKAR. Stack Space Analysis for ARM Executables. (Under the direction of Dr. Alexander Dean). Bounding maximum stack depth for embedded system applications is essential in order to avoid conditions such as stack overflow. Stack usage information is useful for allocating the stack into a memory hierarchy. Prior work in stack space analysis addresses specific issues such as handling interrupts and target ISAs other than ARM. In this thesis, we propose a methodology for stack space analysis based on euler tour traversal of the call graph to determine the maximum stack depth of the application, good preemption points for tasks and hotspots in stack depth. Our main contribution is Astute (A STack UTilization Estimator), a tool that implements our methodology for stack space analysis of ARM executables. We also study the effects of compiler optimization on maximum stack depth of an embedded system application and benchmark programs. Stack Space Analysis for ARM Executables by Shankar Ramachandran A thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University In partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Master of Science Computer Engineering Raleigh, North Carolina May 2008 APPROVED BY: _______________________________ ______________________________ Dr. Alexander Dean Dr. Yan Solihin Committee Chair ________________________________ Dr. Xiaosong Ma