Abstract: A processor implements conditional vector operations in which an input vector containing multiple operands to be used in conditional operations is divided into two or more output vectors based on a condition vector. Each output vector can then be processed at full processor efficiency without cycles wasted due to branch latency. Data to be processed is divided into two groups based on whether or not they satisfy a given condition by, e.g., steering each to one of two index vectors. Once the data has been segregated in this way, subsequent processing can be performed without conditional operations, processor cycles wasted due to branch latency, incorrect speculation or execution of unnecessary instructions due to predication.

Abstract: A processor particularly useful in multimedia applications such as image processing is based on a stream programming model and has a tiered storage architecture to minimize global bandwidth requirements. The processor has a stream register file through which the processor's functional units transfer streams to execute processor operations. Load and store instructions transfer streams between the stream register file and a stream memory; send and receive instructions transfer streams between stream register files of different processors; and operate instructions pass streams between the stream register file and computational kernels. Each of the computational kernels is capable of performing compound vector operations. A compound vector operation performs a sequence of arithmetic operations on data read from the stream register file, i.e., a global storage resource, and generates a result that is written back to the stream register file.