From the S76 func_80181E04 agent (269 ins -> MATCH):
1. §18's %lo-fold applies to STORES only when the symbol is declared
extern Struct SYM[] (stride 0x50, field at +0). On a plain s32[] it
folds for read-only symbols only — worth 13 ins here, and a real
extension of the Phase-20 entry, which only exercised the read side.
2. Relocation masking can HIDE a wrong operand order: the reversed
comparison scores identically under match_one because §1c masks
HI16/LO16 and both symbol refs mask to the same bytes. When a compare's
operands are two different symbols the byte oracle cannot tell them
apart — read the relocations.
3. No biased q pointer (write off p so combine_givs picks p+0x12, else it
mints a second anchor, +2), and keep the counted i<0x100 loop (spelling
the bound via D_801F2A44 costs 12 ins for the same resolved address).
Drew T
0caf4e5c20