In one embodiment, a system includes a memory and a processor core. The processor core includes functional units and an instruction decode unit configured to determine whether an execute packet of instructions received by the processing core includes a first instruction that is designated for execution by a first functional unit of the functional units and a second instruction that is a condition code extension instruction that includes a plurality of sets of condition code bits, wherein each set of condition code bits corresponds to a different one of the functional units, and wherein the sets of condition code bits include a first set of condition code bits that corresponds to the first functional unit. When the execute packet includes the first and second instructions, the first functional unit is configured to execute the first instruction conditionally based upon the first set of condition code bits in the second instruction.

A computation processing apparatus includes: a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory and configured to: decode instructions; execute the instructions which is decoded and operate as a plurality of sub-computation processing apparatuses in accordance with a bit width of data to be computed; and observe an operation state of the computation processing apparatus, wherein, when observing that a subset of the plurality of sub-computation processing apparatuses does not execute an instruction or instructions, the processor parallelizes the instructions and outputs the parallelized instructions.

Software instructions are executed on a processor within a computer system to configure a steaming engine with stream parameters to define a multidimensional array. The stream parameters define a size for each dimension of the multidimensional array, a null vector count (N), and a selected dimension. Data is fetched from a memory coupled to the streaming engine responsive to the stream parameters. A stream of vectors is formed for the multidimensional array responsive to the stream parameters from the data fetched from memory. N null stream vectors are inserted into the stream of vectors for the selected dimension without fetching respective null data from the memory.

A vector processor is disclosed including a variety of variable-length instructions. Computer-implemented methods are disclosed for efficiently carrying out a variety of operations in a time-conscious, memory-efficient, and power-efficient manner. Methods for more efficiently managing a buffer by controlling the threshold based on the length of delay line instructions are disclosed. Methods for disposing multi-type and multi-size operations in hardware are disclosed. Methods for condensing look-up tables are disclosed. Methods for in-line alteration of variables are disclosed.

A SIMD processing unit processes a plurality of tasks which each include up to a predetermined maximum number of work items. The work items of a task are arranged for executing a common sequence of instructions on respective data items. The data items are arranged into blocks, with some of the blocks including at least one invalid data item. Work items which relate to invalid data items are invalid work items. The SIMD processing unit comprises a group of processing lanes configured to execute instructions of work items of a particular task over a plurality of processing cycles. A control module assembles work items into the tasks based on the validity of the work items, so that invalid work items of the particular task are temporally aligned across the processing lanes. In this way the number of wasted processing slots due to invalid work items may be reduced.

A processor core includes a storage device which stores a composite very large instruction word (VLIW) instruction, an instruction unit which obtains the composite VLIW instruction from the storage device and decodes the composite VLIW instruction to determine an operation to perform, and a composite VLIW instruction execution unit which executes the decoded composite VLIW instruction to perform the operation.

A processor includes: an instruction fetch portion configured to fetch simultaneously a plurality of fixed-length instructions in accordance with a program counter; an instruction predecoder configured to predecode specific fields in a part of the plurality of fixed-length instructions; and a program counter management portion configured to control an increment of the program counter in accordance with a result of the predecoding.

A processor of an aspect includes a plurality of processor elements, and a first processor element. The first processor element may perform a user-level fork instruction of a software thread. The first processor element may include a decoder to decode the user-level fork instruction. The user-level fork instruction is to indicate at least one instruction address. The first processor element may also include a user-level thread fork module. The user-level fork module, in response to the user-level fork instruction being decoded, may configure each of the plurality of processor elements to perform instructions in parallel. Other processors, methods, systems, and instructions are disclosed.

An apparatus and method system and method for increasing performance in a processor or other instruction execution device while minimizing energy consumption. A processor includes a first execution pipeline and a second execution pipeline. The first execution pipeline includes a first decode unit and a first execution control unit coupled to the first decode unit. The first execution control unit is configured to control execution of all instructions executable by the processor. The second execution pipeline includes a second decode unit, and a second execution control unit coupled to the second decode unit. The second execution control unit is configured to control execution of a subset of the instructions executable via the first execution control unit.

A superscalar processor has a thread mode of operation for supporting multiple instruction execution threads which are full data path wide instructions, and a micro-thread mode of operation where each thread supports two micro-threads which independently execute instructions. An executed instruction sets a micro-thread mode and an executed instruction sets the thread mode.