MIPS is using the default TLI cost settings for count-leading/trailing-zeros. I think these are considered cheap operations (and therefore fair game for speculation) for any MIPS implementation.
The net result of allowing this speculation for the MIPS regression tests in this patch is that we get this branchless code:
ctlz: jr $ra clz $2, $4 cttz: addiu $1, $4, -1 not $2, $4 and $1, $2, $1 clz $1, $1 addiu $2, $zero, 32 jr $ra subu $2, $2, $1
Instead of:
ctlz: beqz $4, $BB0_2 addiu $2, $zero, 32 clz $2, $4 $BB0_2: jr $ra nop cttz: beqz $4, $BB1_2 addiu $2, $zero, 32 addiu $1, $4, -1 not $2, $4 and $1, $2, $1 clz $1, $1 addiu $2, $zero, 32 subu $2, $2, $1 $BB1_2: jr $ra nop
See D14469 for the larger motivation.