I’m studying some internals of V8’s TurboFan and came across this slide:
Original slide

The diagram shows a branch that is removed during control optimization, resulting in a direct connection to a “Dead” node. However, the nodes x and y are not eliminated during this process.

Why are the nodes x and y retained after control reduction? Shouldn’t they be removed as well since they seem to be part of the dead code?

I would appreciate any clarification on why these nodes are preserved in this context. Thanks!

I’ve tried ask AIs. Still can’t understand it.