Patent ID: 6865667

Claim:
A data processing system comprising: a data processor for executing instructions; and a memory coupled to the data processor, the memory providing instructions to the data processor for execution; the data processing system further comprising: circuitry that redirects program flow by identifying an address corresponding to an instruction provided to the data processor for which program execution should be redirected when the instruction is decoded by the data processor, the circuitry for redirecting program flow also generating a control field having an offset specifically corresponding to the address and using the control field to determine when program flow should be redirected, the circuitry for redirecting program flow creating a redirected address value by combining a portion of the control field to a predetermined address, the data processor receiving the instruction, but discarding the instruction prior to execution completion, the data processor implementing redirection of program flow by utilizing the redirected address value, wherein the data processing system is in either a user mode context or a supervisor context and no change in context occurs upon redirecting program flow.