Central Processing Unit Function Branching Instructions
The program counter in the CPU usually advances sequentially through the instructions. However, special instructions called branch or jump instructions allow the CPU to abruptly shift to an instruction location out of sequence. These branches are either unconditional or conditional. An unconditional branch always jumps to a new, out of order instruction stream. A conditional branch tests the result of a previous operation to see if the branch should be taken. For example, a branch might be taken only if the result of a previous subtraction produced a negative result. Data that are tested for conditional branching are stored in special locations in the CPU called flags.
