DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM AND CONTROL METHOD

A data processing system is provided that comprises a special-purpose processing unit (VU), a general-purpose processing unit that is suited to general-purpose data processing unit (PU) and a fetch unit for supplying a special-purpose instruction to the VU and supplying a general-purpose instruction to the PU, wherein the PU is equipped with a first mode for operating based on a first instruction from the fetch unit and a second mode for operating based on a second instruction from the VU. The resources of the PU are made available for use by the VU so that the resources of the PU can be used by the VU with effectively no overheads being required by the transfer of data between the VU and the PU. As a result, a processor with even greater flexibility and faster processing can be provided.