Super functional units are used to execute not only single super-instructions
that take more than one issue slot, but also a number of equivalent regular VLIW
instructions. Accordingly, the same hardware can thus be used to execute either
a superoperation or a combination of regular operations, potentially combined with
other smaller superoperations. Using super functional units in this way promotes
efficient use of computing resources by making computing resources that might otherwise
be used unnecessarily by superoperations available for use by single-slot instructions
or by smaller superoperations. In some embodiments, a compiler analyzes program
and other data to identify superoperations that can be reduced to equivalent single-slot
instructions. The compiler maps these operations to a single slot of a super functional
unit, reducing the computing resources occupied by the operation.
