SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MANAGING DIVERGENT THREADS IN A SIMD ARCHITECTURE

One embodiment of a computing system configured to manage divergent threads in a thread group includes a stack configured to store at least one token and a multithreaded processing unit. The multithreaded processing unit is configured to perform the steps of fetching a program instruction, determining that the program instruction is not a branch instruction, determining whether the program instruction includes a pop-synchronization bit, and updating an active program counter, where the fashion in which the active program counter is updated relates to whether the program instruction includes a pop-synchronization bit.