Patent ID: 7685402

Claim:
An apparatus configured to execute a set of instructions, the instructions including one or more fields, wherein a field of a given instruction specifies a source or an operand of the given instruction or a destination of a result of the given instruction, and wherein the apparatus comprises: an execution unit configured to execute the instructions; and a register file, coupled to the execution unit, configured to store operands and results of the instructions, wherein, the register file includes a plurality of register sets, each of the register sets including: a first register set having a plurality of registers each of which is configured to store data of a single data type; and a second register set having a plurality of registers, each of which is configured to store data of a plurality of data types, and wherein the register file is responsive to one or more of the fields in a given instruction to retrieve an operand of the given instruction from, or store a result of the given instruction into, a given register in a given one of the register sets as identified by the one or more fields of the given instruction.