mips - the next example

This example access an array which is a block of buffer.

/* bar initialize input (or 3 to each element)
 */
int bar(int* in, int n)
{
    int ret;
    __asm__(
    ".set push     \n"       // save assembler option
    ".set noreorder\n"       // suppress reordering
    "lw $9, %2     \n"       // $9 = n (counter end)
    "li $8, 0      \n"       // $8 = 0
    "li $12, 0     \n"       // $12 = 0
    "move $4, %1\n"          // $4 = in
    "loop:  \n"             
    "lw $11, ($4) \n"        // $11 = *in   
    "ori $11, $11, 3  \n"    // $11 = $11 || 3 
    "sw $11, ($4) \n"        // *in = $11
    "addi $4, $4, 4 \n"      // in++  (move to next addess)
    "addi $8, $8, 1 \n"      // move to next sample
    "bne $8, $9, loop \n"    // loop
    "sw $11, %0    \n"        // save $12 to ret
    ".set pop     \n"        // restore assembler option
    : "=m" (ret)             // to return
    : "r" (in),"m" (n)       // the input
    );
    return ret;
}

Here the use of $8 is not the best, because the move the array element is by $4, soe the $8 is not most necessary, because $4 can be used to check the range for the loop.