Program thread selection between a plurality of execution pipelines

A method comprising:

• assigning, by a decode circuit, a first and a second program thread to, respectively, a first and a second execution pipeline;
• accessing, by the decode circuit, a priority value indicating whether the first program thread or the second program thread has priority to use a shared circuit that is accessed via the first execution pipeline;
• and
• in response to determining that respective available instructions from the first and second program threads would concurrently access the shared circuit, selecting, by the decode circuit using the priority value, either the first program thread or the second program thread.

An apparatus, comprising:

• a plurality of execution pipelines, including first and second execution pipelines configured to concurrently perform operations for a first set of instruction types, wherein the first execution pipeline is further configured to perform operations for a second set of instruction types, different than the first set;
• and
• a decode circuit configured to:
• assign a first program thread to the first execution pipeline and a second program thread to the second execution pipeline;
• and
• select between the first program thread and the second program thread in response to determining that respective instructions from the first and second program threads are concurrently available for dispatch, wherein the respective instructions are included in the second set.