Abstract: The invention is based on the idea to provide a functional unit that is capable of performing not only a simple pass operation but also delayed pass operations, introducing a desired amount of latency. Therefore, a parallel processor is provided, wherein said processor comprises a control means CTR for controlling the processing in said processor, a plurality of passing units PU being adapted to perform a programmable number of pass operations with a programmable latency, and a communication network CN for coupling the control means CTR and said plurality of passing units PU.

Abstract: Vector processing is a suitable technique for processing applications that have large computational demands. Vector processors provide high-level operations that work on vectors, i.e. linear arrays of numbers. Vector operations can be made faster than a sequence of scalar operations on the same number or data items. Typical applications where vector processing can be used is the domain of audio and video processing. A vector memory system has a large data width, which allows retrieving a complete vector of data elements in one memory access using a single memory address. Subsequently, these data elements can be processed in parallel. However, when using vector memory systems the problem of vector alignment and ordering of a set of elements of a vector can occur. The present invention provides an improved method for vector alignment and ordering of vector elements in a computer system comprising a processor (PROC) and a multi-port memory (MEM), resulting in a better performance.