This isn't a good idea either: if you're dealing with undefined behavior the way the complier translates your code can change from version to version, so you could end up with a code that works with the current version of GCC but doesn't work on the next. Personally I don't agree with the way GCC and other comipers deal with UB, but this would be off topic.
unsigned mul(unsigned short x, unsigned short y)
{ return x*y; }
in a way that causes calling code to behave in meaningless fashion if x would exceed INT_MAX/y [something gcc will sometimes actually do, by the way, with that exact function!], the hardware isn't going to have any say in that.
