On Sat, 26 Mar 2005, Marcin Dalecki wrote:
On 2005-03-27, at 00:21, linux-os wrote:
Always, always, a call will be more expensive than a branch on condition. It's impossible to be otherwise. A call requires that the return address be written to memory (the stack), using register indirection (the stack-pointer).
Needless to say that there are enough architectures out there, which don't even have something like an explicit call as separate assembler instruction...
Yes, they break the 'call' into seperate expensive operations like loading the IP address that will exist after the call into a register storing that in a dedicated register, used as a "stack", then branching to the called procedure with another indirection, etc.
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