title: Necessity of J vs. JAL (and JR vs. JALR) in MIPS assembly
body: <p>I signed up because I've been googling forever for an answer to this question and can't find one.</p>
  
  <p>I'd like to know if the jump instructions WITHOUT linking are strictly necessary in MIPS?</p>
  
  <p>I can imagine for example that using "AL" versions when not required would incur some power penalty, but is there any situation  (that's not completely contrived or could be coded around relatively simply) where ONLY J/JR would work?</p>
  
  <p>Thank you!</p>