Hey there,
I am writing MIPS assembly for computing the gcd of two given numbers (recursively), but am struggling!
I vaguely understand changing the frame point counter, stack pointer etc. but I'm really at sea with how to implement the algorithm recursively (e.g. how to check if each number is even or odd, then somehow call the code again and again until input1=input2)
Any assistance will be very appreciated!
Thanks

The stack is just a piece of memory where you can push values on the end or pop values from the end. The $sp register always points to the next available spot.
Visually:
If we push 42 onto the stack, we get:
Popping a value works in reverse.

MIPS doesn't have any "push" or "pop" commands, you just use lw and sw and directly add or subtract to change the $sp value.

Every procedure/function will look similar:
Because register 31 ($ra) is preserved on the stack during the function, you can easily call other functions, or even recurse without worry. To call the function, just do the usual:
jal proc_name

What follows is for your edification, but I don't think you'll need either to do your assignment:

Passing arguments
In MIPS, registers $a0..$a3 are expected to be used as arguments to functions. This is not entirely necessary, just convenient. You could push arguments onto the stack before calling the function as well. If you have more than four arguments, you'll need to push the extra ones anyway. For example, say we want to push $s0 and $s4 as arguments:
The order in which arguments are pushed is up to you, but on MIPS machines it is usually higher addresses first, lower addresses last (in this example, $s0 is argument 1 and $s4 is argument 2).
Also, whether your subroutine removes parameters from the stack or whether it is left to the caller is up to you. (C, for example, expects the caller to remove parameters, whereas Pascal expects the routine to remove the parameters.)

Local variables
You can also store local data on the stack once the routine begins. Once you have started the subroutine and stored the return value on the stack, just subtract more space from the stack for room to keep local variable values. Before you return, restore the stack pointer to its proper state, pop the return address (and maybe parameters if that's how you are doing things) and
jr $sp
to return.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the stack information - very helpful!
However, now due to the algorithm being binary, I have to create subroutines to determine whether or not an inputted number is even or odd, and then divide them accordingly. I think being odd, the binary representation of that number should have an extra 1..? Not sure how to implement the checking, any advice would be appreciated,
thanks

Your teacher is having you implement the Binary GCD Algorithm in assembly? Yoinks.

Well, you can test any positive number for even or odd by looking at the LSB of the number.
Use a branch instruction against $t0 immediately after to choose what to do.

In a high level language, that's the same as dividing by 2 and seeing if there is any remainder.

Hope this helps.

P.S. The Binary GCD Algorithm is a little complex. Make sure you have a good idea of what you want to do either in pseudocode or some high level language, then decompose each high-level statement down into the assembly instructions necessary to do it...

I have started to implement the binary GCD algorithm into assembly. However I'm facing difficulties how to use recursion.
Can anyone help me plse . I

All the information you need is in the second post of this thread. Please read it.

Thanks for all the help I've received so far!
However, when parsing my code, SPIM gives me this error: 'Bad address in data/stack read: 0x00000000' at the point when I'm testing the LSB of the inputs. Any advice?

It looks like you are trying to dereference a NULL pointer.

Yes, that's what I think, I am trying to test the LSB of the input, which I have stored in $a1. Do the $a registers stay put over subroutines?

This code works, but does not implemement the stack.