Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by tux3 971 days ago
It may also help a bit with a cold branch predictor and with icache hit rate

The compiler can make sure that the body for the likely condition is inline with the rest of the code, while the unlikely condition (e.g. the else block of a likely if) can be outlined behind a forward branch

Keeping the unlikely code further aside and behind a branch helps the happy path stay hot and well-predicted