CMU Computer Systems: Machine-Level Programming (Control)

Control: Condition codes

Processor State

• Information about currently executing program
  • Temporary data
  • Location of runtime stack
  • Location of current code control point
  • Status of recent tests

Condition Codes (Implicit Setting)

• Single bit registers
  • CF, SF, ZF, OF
• Implicitly set by arithmetic operations
• Not set by leaq instruction

Condition Codes (Explicit Setting)

• Explicit Setting by Compare Instruction
  • cmpq b,a like computing a-b without setting destiation
• Explicit Setting by Test instruction
  • testq b,a like computing a&b without setting destination
  • Sets condition codes based on value of a&b

Reading Condition Codes

• SetX Instructions
  • Set low-order byte of destination to 0 or 1 based on combinations of condition codes
• One of addressable byte registers
  • Does not alter remaining bytes
  • Typically use movzbl to finish job

Conditional branches

Jumping

• jX Instructions
  • Jump to different part of code depending on condition codes

Expressing with Goto Code

• C allows goto statement
• Jump to position designated by label

Using Conditional Moves

• Conditional Move Instructions
  • Instruction supports
  • Supported in post-1995x86 processors
  • GCC tries to use them

Bad Cases for Conditional Move

• Expensive Computations
• Risky Computations
• Computations with side effects

Loops

Do-While Loop

• Use conditional branch

While Loop

• Initial goto starts loop at test
• Initial conditional guards entrance to loop

For Loop

• Init Test Update Body

Switch Statements

Prototype

• Multiple case labels
• Fall through cases
• Missing cases

Structure

• From Jump Table to Jump Targets