Editing Branch predictor (section)

===Loop predictor===
A [[conditional jump]] that controls a [[control flow#Loops|loop]] is best predicted with a special loop predictor. A conditional jump in the bottom of a loop that repeats N times will be taken N-1 times and then not taken once. If the conditional jump is placed at the top of the loop, it will be not taken N-1 times and then taken once. A conditional jump that goes many times one way and then the other way once is detected as having loop behavior. Such a conditional jump can be predicted easily with a simple counter. A loop predictor is part of a hybrid predictor where a meta-predictor detects whether the conditional jump has loop behavior.