Guarded Execution
A guard on an instruction allows conditional execution of that instruction. Format: TRUE(guard_reg) operation dst src1 src2 If guard_reg is non-zero, operation is performed, else NOP FALSE (guard_reg) operation dst src1 src2 If guard_reg is zero, operation is performed, else NOP
Goal is to ELIMINATE branches
- Measurements in Table 8.17 show that full guarding (all instructions are guarded) eliminated 1/3 of both conditional and unconditional branches