Patent ID: 8296548

Claim:
A method for locating an extreme value data chunk within a data block, the method comprises: fetching by a processor, an instruction, wherein the instruction includes: a data chunk size field; a data block size field; and a data block base address field; and in response to the processor executing only the instruction: fetching, in response to a content of the instruction, a data unit of a plurality of data units that comprises multiple data chunks, the size of each data chunk being determined by the data chunk size field, wherein the data block comprises the plurality of data units that are located at an address that is associated with the data block base address and the data block size field; selectively masking the fetched data chunks in response to a value of a mask; comparing, by a hardware accelerator, between values of valid data chunks of the data unit to provide a first extreme value data chunk of the data unit; wherein valid data chunks include un-masked data chunks that belong to the data block, and wherein the comparing comprises performing multiple comparison operations in parallel; comparing, by the hardware accelerator, between the first extreme value data chunk of the data unit and a second extreme value data chunk of a previously fetched data unit; updating the value of the mask; and jumping to the stage of fetching a new data unit of the plurality of data units that is located at another address that is associated with the data block base address and the data block size field, until the whole data block is fetched.