Not just branch predictor,
but "Software Assisted Branch Prediction". See the source at: <a href="https://opensource.apple.com/source/objc4/objc4-824/runtime/objc-bp-assist.h.auto.html" rel="nofollow">https://opensource.apple.com/source/objc4/objc4-824/runtime/...</a><p>Comment near start says:<p>/// Code for setting up the H14 ObjC branch prediction control registers.
This probably means that a significant number of important apps are still coded in Objective-C, which would not be a big surprise. Is the momentum of Swift language adoption slowing down? If so, perhaps Apple is also hedging their bets.