- the kernel will compile trace point locations with just a
- nop instruction. When trace points are enabled, the nop will
- be converted to a jump to the trace function. This technique
- lowers overhead and stress on the branch prediction of the
- processor.
-
- On i386, options added to the compiler flags may increase
- the size of the kernel slightly.
+ the kernel will compile such branches with just a nop
+ instruction. When the condition flag is toggled to true, the
+ nop will be converted to a jump instruction to execute the
+ conditional block of instructions.
+
+ This technique lowers overhead and stress on the branch prediction
+ of the processor and generally makes the kernel faster. The update
+ of the condition is slower, but those are always very rare.
+
+ ( On 32-bit x86, the necessary options added to the compiler
+ flags may increase the size of the kernel slightly. )