Patent US 4,172,287

A general purpose data processing apparatus is provided which is adapted also for processing vector instructions. An instruction control unit reads instructions out of a memory and decodes them. If the instructions are different from vector instructions, an arithmetic unit performs the instructed operations. If the instructions are vector instructions, the subsequent control is performed by a vector instruction control unit. The vector instruction control unit decodes the vector instructions and controls the vector operands to cause the same arithmetic unit to perform the vector operation in accordance with the vector operands. Thus, the general purpose data processing apparatus can process vector instructions at high speed.