A method is provided for controlling a stack memory with a stack pointer. The method is composed of four major steps in a four phase instruction cycle. The first phase of the method decodes an instruction at an address retained by a program counter. The second phase reads a memory location. The third phase executes the operation of the instruction. Finally, the fourth phase writes the result of the executed operation into a memory location. Various alternate embodiments can modify the above-mentioned steps. For example, the second step can be modified so that it includes a call instruction wherein the address retained by the program counter is written into a stack memory during the second phase at a stack pointer address. Additional sub-steps can include the decrementing of a stack pointer address, the selection of the stack pointer address or the decremented stack pointer address, and the provision of return instruction wherein a previously stored program counter address is read from the stack memory.