Use of end of instructions marker to read a register value to trigger a processor action

摘要

A data processing apparatus and associated method of use for controlling the operation of a data engine (6), the engine having an instruction decoder (18) for generating one or more control signals (24) for controlling processing circuitry (20) to perform data processing operations specified by the program instructions decoded and a flow control register (36). In operation the instruction decoder responds to a marker instruction which indicates the end of a current sequence of program instructions by reading a flow control value from the flow control register. Depending on the value one or more control signals are generated to trigger after completion of the instructions to either process or jump to a further sequence of program instructions from a target address or to place the data engine into an idle state to await new instructions. The target address may be a memory address of a target instruction. The target address may also be a target scheduling program running on a host processor device coupled to the data engine. The flow control value may include a jump enable field comprising a jump enable bit.