topic Itanium Predication / Branching in Software Archive

Itanium Predication / Branching

kevinp83 — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:39:16 GMT

Hello everyone.

I've used both predication and branching to if..then..else and multiway branching. However, I'm sure there are drawbacks for using predication, e.g. when there are long branches, unbalanced branches etc.

How can I decide when to use branching, and when to use predication. Have there been any analytical or empirical studies about this? It would be an interesting read.

Regards,
K. Phillips

Re: Itanium Predication / Branching

Kalyan_M_Intel — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:37:20 GMT

Hi,

The Intel Itanium Architecture Software Developer's Manual Revision 2.2(http://download.intel.com/design/Itanium/manuals/24531705.pdf) will provide the answers to your questions. Please see chapter 4 (section 4.2 "Predication") starting at page 1:163. It talks about when to use branches and when to use predication. If you have any further questions after reading this chapter, do let us know.

Regards,

Kalyan Muthukumar

Re: Itanium Predication / Branching

kevinp83 — Mon, 12 May 2008 21:44:40 GMT

Many thanks. That was helpful. Makes my if-conversion heuristics work better ..

Regards,
K.Phillips