A high speed processor. The processor includes terminals that each execute
a subset of the instruction set. In at least one of the terminals, the
instructions are executed in an order determined by data flow.
Instructions are loaded into the terminal in pages. A notation is made
when an operand for an instruction is generated by another instruction.
When operands for an instruction are available, that instruction is a
"ready" instruction. A ready instruction is selected in each cycle and
executed. To allow data to be transmitted between terminals, each
terminal is provided with a receive station, such that data generated in
one terminal may be transmitted to another terminal for use as an operand
in that terminal. In one embodiment, one terminal is an arithmetic
terminal, executing arithmetic operations such as addition,
multiplication and division. The processor has a second terminal, which
contains functional logic to execute all other instructions in the
instruction set. The invention is useful for arithmetic intensive
applications, such as graphic processors.