For use in a data processor comprising an instruction execution pipeline comprising
N processing stages, a system and method of encoding constant operands is disclosed.
The system comprises a constant generator unit that is capable of generating both
short constant operands and long constant operands. The constant generator unit
extracts the bits of a short constant operand from an instruction syllable and
right justifies the bits in an output syllable. For long constant operands, the
constant generator unit extracts K low order bits from an instruction syllable
and T high order bits from an extension syllable. The right justified K low order
bits and the T high order bits are combined to represent the long constant operand
in one output syllable. In response to the status of op code bits located within
a constant generation instruction, the constant generator unit enables and disables
multiplexers to automatically generate the appropriate short or long constant operand.
