Apparatus and method for shifting quadwords and extracting packed words

A method comprising:

• decoding a left-shift instruction to generate a decoded left-shift instruction;
• storing a plurality of packed quadwords data elements in a first source register;
• left-shifting at least first and second packed quadword data elements from first and second packed quadword data element locations, respectively, in the first source register by an amount specified in an immediate value or in a control value in a second source register, to generate first and second left-shifted quadwords;
• selecting 16 most significant bits of the first and second left-shifted quadwords to be written to least significant 16 bit regions of first and second quadword data element locations, respectively, of a destination register;
• and
• writing the 16 most significant bits of the first and second left-shifted quadwords to the 16 bit regions of the destination register.

A machine-readable medium having program code stored thereon which, when executed by a machine, causes the machine to perform the operations of:

• decoding a left-shift instruction to generate a decoded left-shift instruction;
• storing a plurality of packed quadwords data elements in a first source register;
• left-shifting at least first and second packed quadword data elements from first and second packed quadword data element locations, respectively, in the first source register by an amount specified in an immediate value or in a control value in a second source register, to generate first and second left-shifted quadwords;
• selecting 16 most significant bits of the first and second left-shifted quadwords to be written to least significant 16 bit regions of first and second quadword data element locations, respectively, of a destination register;
• and
• writing the 16 most significant bits of the first and second left-shifted quadwords to the 16 bit regions of the destination register.