Example

 MOVL    #QUEUE,R0         ;Get queue header
 10$:    MOVL    (R0),R0   ;Get entry from queue
         BEQL    20$       ;Forward branch assumed unlikely
         .
         .                 ;Process queue entry
         .
         TSTL    (R0)      ;More than one entry (known to be unlikely)
         .BRANCH_UNLIKELY
         BNEQ    10$       ;This branch made into forward
 20$:                      ;conditional branch

     The .BRANCH_UNLIKELY directive is used here because the Alpha
     hardware would predict a backward branch to 10$ as likely to be
     taken. The programmer knows it is a rare case, so the directive
     is used to change the branch to a forward branch, which is
     predicted not taken.