Patent ID: 7191316

Claim:
A method for handling a plurality of single precision floating point instructions and a plurality of double precision floating point instructions in a fetch group without conflict in registers, wherein the method utilizes a decode unit comprising: a first counter arranged to increment for at least one of the plurality of single precision floating point instructions forwarded, without regard to double precision floating point instructions forwarded; a second counter arranged to increment for at least one of the plurality of double precision floating point instructions forwarded, without regard to single precision floating point instructions forwarded; a first mask register indexed by single precision registers, wherein the first mask register is updated by at least one of the plurality of single precision floating point instructions forwarded, without regard to double precision floating point instructions forwarded; and a second mask register indexed by double precision registers, wherein the second mask register is updated by at least one of the plurality of double precision floating point instructions forwarded, without regard to single precision floating point instructions forwarded, wherein the method comprises: decoding at least one of the plurality of the single precision floating point instructions and at least one of the plurality of the double precision floating point instructions; evaluating the at least one of the plurality of the single precision floating point instructions and the at least one of the double precision floating point instructions in the fetch group, wherein the evaluating is based on values of the first counter and the second counter and based on a value of an entry in the first mask register and a value of an entry in the second mask register; and based on the evaluating, processing the at least one of the plurality of the single precision floating point instructions and the at least one of the plurality of the double precision floating point instructions.