Methods and apparatus for atomic operations with multiple processing paths

An atomic memory operation system comprising:

• a data buffer configured to store an atomic input;
• an address buffer configured to store an address for an atomic memory location;
• and
• an atomic operation unit configured to perform an atomic operation on the atomic memory location based on the atomic input stored in the data buffer;
• wherein the atomic operation unit comprises:
• a first processing path configured to perform a first operation on a first portion of the atomic input;
• and
• a second processing path configured to perform a second operation on a second portion of the atomic input.

A method of performing atomic operations by a processing unit, the method comprising:

• receiving an instruction to perform an atomic operation;
• receiving a first input;
• receiving a second input having n bits;
• receiving a third input having m bits, wherein n and m are non-negative integers;
• performing the atomic operation using the second input and the third input to generate an intermediate result;
• and
• storing the intermediate result at an atomically accessed memory location specified by the first input.