The CPU has an automatic program stack. This stack can be located anywhere in the address space and can be any size up to the amount of memory available in the system. Normally the SP is initialized by one of the first instructions in an application program. The stack is configured as a data structure that grows downward from high memory to low memory. At any given time, the SP holds the 16-bit address of the next free location in the stack. The stack acts like any other stack when there is a subroutine call or on an interrupt. ie. pushing the return address on a jump, and retrieving it after the operation is complete to come back to its original location. There are instructions that push and pull the A and B accumulators and the X and Y index registers. These instructions are often used to preserve program context.