INTRODUCTION TO ARM 1

PREDICATED EXECUTION AND INDIRECT BRANCHES

Conditional Execution

• Also known as “predicated execution”

• ARM allows every instruction to be “conditional”
• Why use “conditional execution”? Branches can
lower performance (as we will see later).

SECTION 15: CONDITIONAL EXECUTION, AND

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INDIRECT BRANCHES 2
 Example

Convert following ARM assembly code to use

conditional execution:

CMP R3,R4
BNE Else // goto Else if i != j
ADD r0,r1,r2 // f = g + h (skipped if i ≠ j)
B Exit // go to Exit
Else: SUB r0,r1,r2 // f = g – h (skipped if i = j)
Exit:

SECTION 15: CONDITIONAL EXECUTION, AND

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INDIRECT BRANCHES 3
 Solution

Eliminate branches by adding opposite condition

to one which causes instruction to be skipped:

CMP R3,R4
BNE Else // goto Else if i != j
ADD r0,r1,r2 // f = g + h (skipped if i ≠ j)
B Exit // go to Exit
Else: SUB r0,r1,r2 // f = g – h (skipped if i = j)
Exit:

CMP R3,R4
ADDEQ r0,r1,r2 // f = g + h (skipped if i ≠ j)
SUBNE r0,r1,r2 // f = g – h (skipped if i = j)

SECTION 15: CONDITIONAL EXECUTION, AND

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INDIRECT BRANCHES 4
 Indirect Branches

Address of next instruction can be specified in a

register

BX Rm

MOV PC, Rm

SECTION 15: CONDITIONAL EXECUTION, AND

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INDIRECT BRANCHES 5