Problem :

You are to determine the branch misprediction penalty for at least one machine that you have access to. The technique employed is described on pages 215-216 of the text.

The absdiff() and measurement code in this tar file  will serve as a good starting point. First, you should write a short paragraph describing the technique used to measure the branch misprediction penalty.

(Study the code and read the book.) Secondly, report the penalty you calculated and identify the platform you obtained it on.

Finally, find a compiler option that generates code for the absdiff() function that uses a conditional move instruction rather than a branch.

(Compile getbrpen.c with the -S option and examine the code generated for absdiff().)

Report the optimization level you used and results from running the brnchpen program with this version of absdiff(). How much is performance improved when the conditional move instruction is used?