Parallelism

The following sequence implements an atomic exchange on the memory location specified by the contents of $s1:

again: addi $t0, $zero, 1      #copy locked value
       ll $t1, 0($s1)          #load linked
       sc $t0, 0($s1)          #store conditional
       beq $t0, $zero, again   #branch if store fails
       add $s4, $zero, $t1     #put load value in $s4

Any time a processor intervenes and modifies the value in memory between the ll and sc instructions, the sc returns 0 in $t0, causing the code sequence to try again. At the end of this sequence the contents of $s4 and the memory location specified by $s1 have been atomically exchanged.

Pseudoinstructions

As

move $t0, $t1

is actually

add $t0, $zero, $t1

.
Others like: blt, bgt, bge, ble and etc. The cost is reserving one register, $at, for use by the assembler.