Re: &, &&, and CPU cycles

[Bruno Haible]

Hi Ralf,

> > > I count ca. 2 CPU
> > > cycles for a memory access and ca. 8 CPU cycles for a conditional jump,
> > > therefore I would say that the change slows down the program a bit.
> 
> For what little it's worth, this code cycle argument does not take into
> account the optimization features of recent GCC versions AFAIK.

Which gcc versions are you alluding at? The attached program, compiled
with -O2 -S for i686, yields 3 conditional branches in shortcircuit_and
and 1 conditional branch in binary_and, with gcc 4.3.0 - same as with
previous versions of gcc. It it improved in gcc 4.4 snapshots?

Bruno


========================================================================
#include <stdbool.h>

extern bool show_all_fs;
extern bool show_listed_fs;

int binary_and (int x)
{
  if (x == 3 & !show_all_fs & !show_listed_fs)
    return x;
  return -x;
}

int shortcircuit_and (int x)
{
  if (x == 3 && !show_all_fs && !show_listed_fs)
    return x;
  return -x;
}
========================================================================