x86 has instructions that execute conditionally. Most conditionals in higher level languages get compiled to conditional jumps, but using conditional operations

x86 has instructions that execute conditionally. Most conditionals in higher level languages get compiled to conditional jumps, but using conditional operations this isn't necessary. The same code path is taken in all cases, and the instructions effect is what is conditional. In the case of cmov, it is either a nop or a mov dependent on the state of the conditional flags. Using this construct instead of a regular mov guarded by conditional jumps has better performance in some cases. On my machine gcc is outputting a combination of conditional jumps and conditional movs at all optimization levels