On Wed, 2007-01-03 at 08:03 -0800, Linus Torvalds wrote: > and assuming the branch is AT ALL predictable (and 95+% of all branches > are), the branch-over will actually be a LOT better for a CPU.
IF... Counterexample: Add-Compare-Select in a Viterbi Decoder. If the compare can be predicted, you botched the compression of the data (if you can predict the data, you could have compressed it better), or your noise is not white, i.e. you f*** up the whitening filter. So in any practical viterbi decoder, the compares cannot be predicted. I remember cmov made a big difference in Viterbi Decoder performance on a Cyrix 6x86. But granted, nowadays these things are usually done with SIMD and masks. Tom - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
