Dynamically-selectable vector register partitioning

A system for processing data comprising:

• at least one application engine having at least one configurable function unit that is configurable to any of a plurality of different vector processing personalities;
• an infrastructure common to all the plurality of different vector processing personalities;
• vector registers containing vector register elements for storing data for vector oriented operations by the at least one application engine;
• and
• wherein said at least one application engine is dynamically settable to any of a plurality of different vector register partitioning modes, said vector register partitioning mode to which the at least one application engine is dynamically set defining how said vector register elements are partitioned.

A multi-processor system comprising:

• a host processor;
• and
• a co-processor, said co-processor including vector registers containing vector register elements for storing data for vector oriented operations by the co-processor;
• a control register comprising dynamically settable information for dynamically setting said co-processor to any of a plurality of different vector register partitioning modes, wherein said vector register elements are partitioned according to the vector register partitioning mode to which the co-processor is dynamically set;
• and
• said control register comprising dynamically settable information for setting at least one of a vector stride and a vector partition stride for controlling memory access pattern when said co-processor is performing a vector register memory load or store.

A method comprising:

• initiating an executable file for processing instructions of the executable file by a multi-processor system, wherein the multi-processor system comprises a host processor and a co-processor;
• determining one of a plurality of different vector register partitioning modes desired for the co-processor, said desired vector register partitioning mode defining how vector register elements of the co-processor are partitioned for use in performing vector oriented operations for processing a portion of the instructions of the executable file;
• when determined that the co-processor is set to the desired vector register partitioning mode, dynamically setting the co-processor to the desired vector register partitioning mode;
• and
• processing, by the multi-processor system, the instructions of the executable file, wherein a portion of the instructions are processed by the host processor and a portion of the instructions are processed by the co-processor.