Patent ID: 8627043

Claim:
A method, in a data processing system having a processor, for performing data parallel function calls in code during runtime, comprising: executing, in the processor, a portion of code having a data parallel function call to a target portion of code, wherein the portion of code having the data parallel function call is calling code; determining, at runtime by the processor, whether the target portion of code is a data parallel portion of code or a scalar portion of code; determining, at runtime by the processor, whether the calling code is data parallel code or scalar code; and executing the target portion of code, where the manner of execution of the target portion of code is based on the determination of whether the target portion of code is a data parallel portion of code or a scalar portion of code, and the determination of whether the calling code is data parallel code or scalar code; wherein if the calling code is scalar code, and the target portion of code is a data parallel portion of code, the processor is configured to execute the target portion of code by calling the target portion of code with a mask to identify a preferred slot of a vector register.