Streaming engine with stream metadata saving for context switching

A data processing apparatus comprising:

• a processing core;
• a memory;
• a register file;
• and
• a streaming engine configured to receive a plurality of data elements stored in the memory and to provide the plurality of data elements as a data stream to the processing core, the streaming engine including:
• an address generator to generate addresses corresponding to locations in the memory, the address generator;
• a buffer to store the data elements received from the locations in the memory corresponding to the generated addresses;
• and
• an output to supply the data elements received from the memory to the processing core as the data stream, and wherein the streaming engine is:
• responsive to a stream save instruction to store state metadata of the data stream into at least one register of the register file;
• and
• responsive to a stream restore instruction to recall the state metadata of the data stream from the at least one register of the register file.