Using conditional execution

You can use conditional execution of ARM instructions to reduce the number of branch instructions in your code. This improves code density. The IT instruction in Thumb‑2 achieves a similar improvement.

Branch instructions are also expensive in processor cycles. On ARM processors without branch prediction hardware, it typically takes three processor cycles to refill the processor pipeline each time a branch is taken.

Some ARM processors, for example ARM10™ and StrongARM^®, have branch prediction hardware. In systems using these processors, the pipeline only has to be flushed and refilled when there is a misprediction.