Abstract: The disclosed inventions include a processor apparatus and method that enable a general purpose processor to achieve twice the operating frequency of typical processor implementations with a modest increase in area and a modest increase in energy per operation. The invention relies upon exploiting multiple independent streams of execution. Low area and low energy memory arrays used for register files operate a modest frequency. Instructions can be issued at a rate higher than this frequency by including logic that guarantees the spacing between instructions from the same thread are spaced wider than the time to access the register file. The result of the invention is the ability to overlap long latency structures, which allows using lower energy structures, thereby reducing energy per operation.