Consider the following implementation of strlen, which returns the length of a zero-terminated string: strlen:
li $v0, 0
top:
lbu $t0, 0($a0)
beqz $t0, ret
addiu $v0, $v0, 1
addiu $a0, $a0, 1
b top
ret:
jr $ra
(a) If strlen is called on a 10-character string, how many dynamic instructions will be executed? Explain your answer.
(b) Below, rewrite the function to reduce the total number of instructions executed (e. g., for a 10-character string). The bigger the reduction, the better.
(c) How many instructions will your solution for (b) execute for a 10-character string? Explain your answer.