In fact, I have seen gcc optimize clever hacks that tried to use multiplication, into conditional moves (on aarch32). There is this common misconception that c

In fact, I have seen gcc optimize clever hacks that tried to use multiplication, into conditional moves (on aarch32). There is this common misconception that conditional moves == branching. On actually relevant software architectures, they very much are not. Replacing a p=0.5 branch into a conditional move is in itself a significant optimization.