Category:MIPS Assembly: Difference between revisions
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→Branch Delay Slots
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Branch delay slots affect all versions of MIPS. This is the phenomenon where the instruction immediately after a branch is actually executed <i>before</i> the branch takes place.
<lang mips>jal PrintString
addiu $a0,1 ;
On a "normal" CPU with no pipeline, the instruction after a call is not executed whatsoever until after it returns.
This would have the same outcome as the following, except the above version is faster than this one:
Line 52 ⟶ 53:
jal bar
nop</lang>
Most assemblers will refuse to allow your code to compile if certain instructions are in the branch delay slot. A branch delay slot cannot contain a branch.
<lang mips>bne $t0,$t1,skip
jal DoThing ;this can't be in a branch delay slot, and therefore won't compile.
skip:</lang>
Placing a <tt>nop</tt> in the slot instead will fix this.
<lang mips>bne $t0,$t1,skip
nop ;branch delay slot
jal DoThing
skip:</lang>
==See Also==
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