Jump and Branch Instructions

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The table below lists some jump and branch instructions. Jump is with the J-type format and branch instructions are with the I-type format. The unconditional instructions (j and b) transfer control to the instruction at label when executed. The conditional branches first perform the indicated comparison, then branch if the result of the comparison is true.

For the ‘z’ instructions (beqz, bltz, etc.), the register contents are compared with 0. For the instructions with two registers, the comparison is performed between the contents of the two registers. The rt register can be replaced with a constant instead of a register designation; this produces a “branch immediate” type of pseudoinstruction.

Instruction Description j label Jump b label Unconditional branch beq rs, rt, label Branch on equal beqz rs, label Branch on equal zero bne rs, rt, label Branch on not equal bnez rs, label Branch on not equal zero blt rs, rt, label Branch on less than bltu rs, rt, label Branch on less than unsigned bltz rs, label Branch on less than zero ble rs, rt, label Branch on less/equal bleu rs, rt, label Branch on less/equal unsigned blez rs, label Branch on less/equal zero bgt rs, rt, label Branch on greater bgtu rs, rt, label Branch on greater unsigned bgtz rs, label Branch on greater zero bge rs, rt, label Branch on greater/equal bgeu rs, rt, label Branch on greater/equal unsigned bgez rs, label Branch on greater/equal zero

Pseudoinstructions do not correspond to real MIPS instructions. Instead, the assembler would translate pseudoinstructions to real instructions, usually requiring at least one or more instructions. Most of the conditional branches are pseudoinstructions, composed of a “set” (comparison) instruction, followed by a beq or bne instruction.