branch prediction pattern

Hi all,

Say I have the code below

Program Main
use ModSubroutines
Implicit None
Integer :: A, Stat
call SubA(A,Stat)
if(Stat==0) call SubB(A,Stat)
if(Stat==0) call SubC(A,Stat)
if(Stat==0) Then
write(*,*) "Success"
Else
write(*,*) "Error"
End If
End Program

In order to avoid uncontrolled termination of the program, a status variable "Stat" is carried all along the way. If it's value is different from zero, the program will give an informative error message and will close down gently. Since "Stat" changes from zero to one only if an error has occured which lead to program termination, it will always be zero in a normal program run. Thus "Stat" has a very predictable pattern and a sever slow down from this pattern is not an issue because the pogram will then terminate. Thus, if the compiler predicts the pattern of "Stat" from "Stat" only, all these if statement, and there can be thousand, will not slow down the run time of the program because the pattern will always be "FFFFFF....". However, if the compiler mixes the pattern of "Stat" with those of other branching variables such as input parameter, the "Stat" if statements will slow down the pogram. I read somewhere on the web that compiler will not store a pattern for every single branch, thus, mixing branches and variables. If this is correct for Ifort too, the question is whether there is any possibility of telling the compiler to create a predictive pattern for "Stat" branches only.

Thanks

Karl