Do we need branch prediction?

By: Anon4 (anon.delete@this.example.com), August 25, 2022 11:45 am
Room: Moderated Discussions
Brendan (btrotter.delete@this.gmail.com) on August 25, 2022 7:54 am wrote:
> Is it possible for a good and useful program to exist without at least one branch?

It depends on how you define branch. On a completely predicated architecture like 32 bit ARM it's possible to do if-conversion to turn branches in to predicated execution then effectively unroll and in-line everything else.

I was once involved with a piece of avionics software running as part of a 3 way voting system and one of the implementations did exactly the above ran for 30 million instructions out of reset with no branches to produce the output then reset the processor to run again.


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TopicPosted ByDate
Do we need branch prediction?Kara2022/08/24 02:07 PM
  Do we need branch prediction?Rayla2022/08/24 03:04 PM
  Do we need branch prediction?Mark Roulo2022/08/24 04:25 PM
    Do we need branch prediction?Paul A. Clayton2022/08/24 06:28 PM
      Do we need branch prediction?Anon2022/08/24 06:52 PM
    Do we need branch prediction?rwessel2022/08/24 06:40 PM
    Do we need branch prediction?ananon2022/08/25 12:56 AM
      Do we need branch prediction?Carlie Coats2022/08/25 07:39 AM
        OT: You wanted rather than Mark Roulo2022/08/25 09:57 AM
          OT: You wanted "pre" rather than "code" rather than Mark Roulo2022/08/25 09:57 AM
            OT: You wanted "pre" rather than "code" rather than Carlie Coats2022/08/25 11:43 AM
    Do we need branch prediction?Kevin G2022/08/25 08:47 AM
      Do we need branch prediction?rwessel2022/08/25 11:10 AM
          Do we need branch prediction?rwessel2022/08/26 10:37 AM
  Do we need branch prediction?Geoff Langdale2022/08/24 07:18 PM
  Do we need branch prediction?Adrian2022/08/25 12:58 AM
  Do we need branch prediction?Brendan2022/08/25 07:54 AM
    Do we need branch prediction?Anon42022/08/25 11:45 AM
      Do we need branch prediction?anon22022/08/25 09:08 PM
  Predicable branching patterns (aykm; )Kara2022/08/27 01:00 PM
    Predicable branching patterns (aykm; )Jukka Larja2022/08/27 11:38 PM
    Predicable branching patterns (aykm; )Eric Fink2022/08/28 01:22 AM
      Predicable branching patterns (aykm; )Doug S2022/08/28 10:17 AM
    Predicable branching patterns (aykm; )---2022/08/28 02:16 PM
      Predicable branching patterns (aykm; )Anon2022/08/28 02:35 PM
  Q: Do we need branch prediction? A: We don't need it, but....⚛2022/08/29 02:17 PM
    Quantum stuff.Kara2022/08/29 03:01 PM
      Q: Do we need branch prediction? A: We don't need it, but....⚛2022/08/30 11:48 AM
    "Quantum Woo" (hint; that's NOT how it works) (NT)anonymous22022/08/29 04:19 PM
      Q: Do we need branch prediction? A: We don't need it, but....⚛2022/08/30 12:14 PM
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