[v3] conditional tweak

Gabriel Dos Reis gdr@integrable-solutions.net
Fri Nov 7 21:35:00 GMT 2003


Phil Edwards <phil@jaj.com> writes:

| On Thu, Nov 06, 2003 at 03:05:31AM +0100, Gabriel Dos Reis wrote:
| > Jerry Quinn <jlquinn@optonline.net> writes:
| > 
| > | 2003-11-05  Jerry Quinn  <jlquinn@optonline.net>
| > | 
| > | 	* include/bits/basic_ios.h (basic_ios::fill):  Use
| > |         __builtin_expect.
| > 
| > Does it make a real measurable difference?
| 
| While I haven't measured Jerry's particular patch, on machines with deep
| pipelines, an incorrectly-predicted branch can be a significant stall
| (most/all of the pipeline has to be cleared).

In theory, yes.  In this particular case, we're speaking of an I/O
formatting flag setting which is nowhere a bottleneck (expect probably
in a testsuite). 

|  My own opinion is that
| we should use __builtin_expect anywhere we (the humans) can reasonably
| predict the result.

When I first suggested use of __builtin_expect in V3 a while ago, I
suggested the idea of using it as where as possible.  I believe RTH
remarked that that would really make difference only in frequently
taken code paths, and he wasn't positive about its liebral use.   
basic_ios<T>::fill isn't a tight loop of a frequently taken path.  
I would like to see measurements before we start springling
__builtin_expect everywhere.

-- Gaby



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