Execution Contexts

Execution contexts

Miden assembly program execution can span multiple isolated contexts. An execution context defines its own memory space which is not accessible from other execution contexts.

All programs start executing in a root context. Thus, the main procedure of a program is always executed in the root context. To move execution into a different context, we can invoke a procedure using the call instruction. In fact, any time we invoke a procedure using the call instruction, the procedure is executed in a new context. We refer to all non-root contexts as user contexts.

While executing in a user context, we can request to execute some procedures in the root context. This can be done via the syscall instruction. The set of procedures which can be invoked via the syscall instruction is limited by the kernel against which a program is compiled. Once the procedure called via syscall returns, the execution moves back to the user context from which it was invoked. The diagram below illustrates this graphically:

Procedure invocation semantics

As mentioned in the previous section, procedures in Miden assembly can be invoked via five different instructions: exec, call, syscall, dynexec, and dyncall. Invocation semantics of call, dyncall, and syscall instructions are basically the same, the only difference being that the syscall instruction can be used only with procedures which are defined in the program's kernel. The exec and dynexec instructions are different, and we explain these differences below.

Invoking via call, dyncall, and syscall instructions

When a procedure is invoked via a call, dyncall, or a syscall instruction, the following happens:

• Execution moves into a different context. In case of the call and dyncall instructions, a new user context is created. In case of a syscall instruction, the execution moves back into the root context.
• All stack items beyond the 16th item get "hidden" from the invoked procedure. That is, from the standpoint of the invoked procedure, the initial stack depth is set to 16.
  • Note that for dyncall, the stack is shifted left by one element before being set to 16.

When the callee returns, the following happens:

• The execution context of the caller is restored
• If the original stack depth was greater than 16, those elements that were "hidden" during the call as described above, are restored. However, the stack depth must be exactly 16 elements when the procedure returns, or this will fail and the VM will trap.

The manipulations of the stack depth described above have the following implications:

• The top 16 elements of the stack can be used to pass parameters and return values between the caller and the callee.
• Caller's stack beyond the top 16 elements is inaccessible to the callee, and thus, is guaranteed not to change as the result of the call.
  • As mentioned above, in the case of dyncall, the elements at indices 1 to 17 at the call site will be accessible to the callee (shifted to indices 0 to 16)
• At the end of its execution, the callee must ensure that stack depth is exactly 16. If this is difficult to ensure manually, the truncate_stack procedure can be used to drop all elements from the stack except for the top 16.

Invoking via exec instruction

The exec instruction can be thought of as the "normal" way of invoking procedures, i.e. it has semantics that would be familiar to anyone coming from a standard programming language, or that is familiar with procedure call instructions in a typical assembly language.

In Miden Assembly, it is used to execute procedures without switching execution contexts, i.e. the callee executes in the same context as the caller. Conceptually, invoking a procedure via exec behaves as if the body of that procedure was inlined at the call site. In practice, the procedure may or may not be actually inlined, based on compiler optimizations around code size, but there is no actual performance tradeoff in the usual sense. Thus, when executing a program, there is no meaningful difference between executing a procedure via exec, or replacing the exec with the body of the procedure.

Kernels

A kernel defines a set of procedures which can be invoked from user contexts to be executed in the root context. Miden assembly programs are always compiled against some kernel. The default kernel is empty - i.e., it does not contain any procedures. To compile a program against a non-empty kernel, the kernel needs to be specified when instantiating the Miden Assembler.

A kernel can be defined similarly to a regular library module - i.e., it can have internal and exported procedures.

Memory layout

As mentioned earlier, procedures executed within a given context can access memory only of that context. This is true for both memory reads and memory writes.

Address space of every context is the same: the smallest accessible address is $0$ and the largest accessible address is $2^{32} - 1$. Any code executed in a given context has access to its entire address space. However, by convention, we separate the memory into 2 distinct regions:

• The first $2^{31}$ addresses are assumed to be global memory, freely usable by programs.
• All addresses including and above $2^{31}$ are reserved for procedure locals (i.e., via the exec instruction).

Note that the highest accessible address ($2^{32} - 1$) is reserved by the VM to store the frame memory pointer.

Writing directly into memory at an address including and above $2^{31}$ is not advisable. Instead, loc_load, loc_store and other similar dedicated instructions should be used to access procedure locals.

Example

To better illustrate what happens as we execute procedures in different contexts, let's go over the following example.

kernel
--------------------
export.baz.2
    <instructions>
    caller
    <instructions>
end

program
--------------------
proc.bar.1
    <instructions>
    syscall.baz
    <instructions>
end

proc.foo.3
    <instructions>
    call.bar
    <instructions>
    exec.bar
    <instructions>
end

begin
    <instructions>
    call.foo
    <instructions>
end

Execution of the above program proceeds as follows:

1. The VM starts executing instructions immediately following the begin statement. These instructions are executed in the root context (let's call this context ctx0).
2. When call.foo is executed, a new context is created (ctx1). Memory in this context is isolated from ctx0. Additionally, any elements on the stack beyond the top 16 are hidden from foo.
3. Instructions executed inside foo can access memory of ctx1 only. The address of the first procedure local in foo (e.g., accessed via loc_load.0) is $2^{31}$.
4. When call.bar is executed, a new context is created (ctx2). The stack depth is set to 16 again, and any instruction executed in this context can access memory of ctx2 only. The first procedure local of bar is also located at address $2^{31}$.
5. When syscall.baz is executed, the execution moves back into the root context. That is, instructions executed inside baz have access to the memory of ctx0. The first procedure local of baz is located at address $2^{31}$. When baz starts executing, the stack depth is again set to 16.
6. When caller is executed inside baz, the first 4 elements of the stack are populated with the hash of bar since baz was invoked from bar's context.
7. Once baz returns, execution moves back to ctx2, and then, when bar returns, execution moves back to ctx1. We assume that instructions executed right before each procedure returns ensure that the stack depth is exactly 16 right before procedure's end.
8. Next, when exec.bar is executed, bar is executed again, but this time it is executed in the same context as foo. Thus, it can access memory of ctx1. Moreover, the stack depth is not changed, and thus, bar can access the entire stack of foo. Lastly, this first procedure local of bar now will be at address $2^{31} + 3$ (since the first 3 locals in this context are reserved for foo).
9. When syscall.baz is executed the second time, execution moves into the root context again. However, now, when caller is executed inside baz, the first 4 elements of the stack are populated with the hash of foo (not bar). This happens because this time around bar does not have its own context and baz is invoked from foo's context.
10. Finally, when baz returns, execution moves back to ctx1, and then as bar and foo return, back to ctx0, and the program terminates.