Branch Statistics (Table 4.1, Table 8.1, Fig 8.4)

• 20% of instructions are branches in general purpose code, 5% of instructions are branch scientific code

  • 80% of branches are conditional branches

• Branch Types

  • Unconditional
    • Simple Branch (jump), Branch to subroutine, Return from subroutine
  • Conditional
    • Loop-closing branch, Other conditional branches

• 75% of all branches are taken branches

  • Makes sense to optimize taken branches

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