http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=46631
Summary: Change operands order so we can use 16bit and instead of 32bit in thumb2 Product: gcc Version: 4.6.0 Status: UNCONFIRMED Severity: normal Priority: P3 Component: target AssignedTo: unassig...@gcc.gnu.org ReportedBy: car...@google.com CC: car...@google.com Compile the following code with options -march=armv7-a -mthumb -Os struct S { int bi_buf; int bi_valid; }; int tz (struct S* p, int bits, int value) { if (p == 0) return 1; p->bi_valid = bits; p->bi_buf = value & ((1 << bits) - 1); return 0; } GCC 4.6 generates: 00000000 <tz>: 0: 2301 movs r3, #1 2: b138 cbz r0, 14 <tz+0x14> 4: 408b lsls r3, r1 6: 6041 str r1, [r0, #4] 8: 3b01 subs r3, #1 a: ea03 0202 and.w r2, r3, r2 // A e: 6002 str r2, [r0, #0] 10: 2000 movs r0, #0 12: 4770 bx lr 14: 4618 mov r0, r3 16: 4770 bx lr Notice instruction A is 32 bit, if we change it to and r2, r2, r3 then we can encode it as 16bit.