3.6.5 Implementing Conditional Branches with Conditional Control

• The most general way to translate conditional expressions and statements from C into machine code is to use combinations of conditional and unconditional jumps

3.6.6 Implementing Conditional Branches with Conditional Moves

• Processors employ sophisticated branch pre- diction logic to try to guess whether or not each jump instruction will be followed.
• the code compiled using conditional moves requires around 8 clock cycles regardless of the data being tested. The flow of control does not depend on data, and this makes it easier for the processor to keep its pipeline full.

• The source and destination values can be 16, 32, or 64 bits long. Single- byte conditional moves are not supported
• Unlike conditional jumps, the processor can execute conditional move in- structions without having to predict the outcome of the test.