Inserting predefined pad values into a stream of vectors

A system comprising:

• a system memory;
• a streaming engine coupled to the system memory, wherein the streaming engine comprises:
• a stream template register to store stream parameters, wherein the stream parameters define a size for each dimension of a multidimensional array and a pad value indicator;
• address generation logic coupled to the stream template register;
• a memory interface logic coupled to receive a stream of addresses from the address generation logic and coupled to access the system memory;
• and
• control logic coupled to the memory interface logic, wherein the control logic is configured to form a padded stream vector that includes a pad value specified by the pad value indicator without fetching respective pad data from the memory by suppressing a respective access to the system memory responsive to the stream parameters while forming the padded stream vector.

A system comprising:

• a system memory;
• a streaming engine coupled to access the system memory, the streaming engine configured to:
• receive stream parameters defining an array, wherein the stream parameters include:
• a number of vectors for each dimension in the array;
• and
• a pad value;
• in response to receiving the stream parameters, generate an address stream based on the stream parameters;
• for each dimension in the array:
• retrieve, based on the address stream, one or more elements from the system memory;
• and
• form the number of vectors for each dimension in the array, wherein each of the number of vectors is formed based on the one or more elements retrieved from the system memory;
• and
• form a stream of vectors with the number of vectors for each dimension, wherein the streaming engine is operable to insert a padded vector having the pad value into the stream of vectors for each dimension;
• and
• a processing unit coupled to outputs of the streaming engine to receive the stream of vectors for each dimension.