Patent ID: 7120781

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a register pair adapted to store two grouped words comprising in aggregate up to 2n operands, the register pair including a first register and a second register; a control unit operative to: prime the apparatus for aligning a plurality of grouped words in a data array by loading first and second grouped words from said plurality of grouped words into the register pair and determining an alignment state of at least one of said first and second grouped words in a first alignment operation; and load a next one of said plurality of grouped words into one of said first and second registers in each of a plurality of subsequent alignment operations and an operand selector adapted to select n operands from the two grouped words in said register pair and output an aligned grouped word comprising said n operands in response to a control signal indicative of the alignment state of said two grouped words in each of the first and said subsequent alignment operations, wherein the operand selector is connected to one or more execution units such that the aligned group word is output from the operand selector directly to the execution units, and in each of the subsequent alignment operations, the control unit loads only one grouped word from said plurality of grouped words into the register pair and the operand selector outputs one aligned grouped word from said register pair.