Patent ID: 7822947

Claim:
Apparatus for processing data, said apparatus comprising: a register data store operable to store a plurality of data elements, a register within said register data store holding a number of data elements dependent upon a data element size of said data elements; and processing logic responsive to a data processing instruction to perform a data processing operation in parallel upon a selected plurality of data elements accessed as said register of said register data store and occupying different lanes of parallel processing within said register; wherein data elements of said selected plurality of data elements share one of a plurality of different data element sizes, said register has one of a plurality of different register sizes and said data processing instruction specifies for said data processing operation a data element size shared by said selected plurality of data elements from among said plurality of different data element sizes and a register size of said register; and further comprising register accessing logic operable to map said register to a portion of said register data store dependent upon said register size of said register such that a data element stored within said portion of said register data store is accessible as a part of respective different registers of differing register size.