+8 bodies (worker A claims 11-18, all first-attempt; 16 of A's 18 claims needed
no override at all). Candidate gate MATCH before promotion.
TWO NEW LEVERS (worker A):
1. A two-arm selection's POLARITY is byte-required. For a1 = (x<2) ? a3 : saved,
the natural order and the ternary both emit beq v0,zero with the arms swapped
(right length, 5 differing bytes). Writing the larger-than arm first
(if (x >= 2) a1 = saved; else a1 = a3;) makes cc1 emit bne v0,zero with
a1 = a3 in the BRANCH DELAY SLOT, so that assignment runs on both paths and is
overwritten on the >=2 path -- which is the original exactly. Same family as the
mirrored comparison load order; second polarity case in A's partition.
2. A NAMED BOOLEAN LOCAL forces the branchless compare. rec[6] = ((a3 & 0xff) != 0) << 1
is branchy (92 vs 88); only naming the boolean first,
int flag = (a3 & 0xff) != 0; then rec[6] = flag << 1;
reproduces the original's andi / sltu / sll. Six spellings measured. cc1 will
un-do a boolean you inline when the VALUE (not the branch) is what you need.
make check green: regions=473 AGREE, differing_bytes=0 MATCH, 237 tests OK.
Worklist 1241 rows; excluded_already_registered=473.
Christopher Williams
82c65ed468