Methods and apparatus for data processing

A method of operating a data processing system that comprises at least one data processing unit, at least one execution unit, and a control unit to schedule processing workload on the execution unit, the at least one execution unit being capable of communicating with the at least one data processing unit via a direct pathway that bypasses the control unit, the method comprising:

• the at least one execution unit:
• executing an instruction responsive to a command to process data;
• submitting a machine learning operation to the at least one data processing unit responsive to the instruction via the direct pathway,
• the at least one data processing unit:
• executing a machine learning model responsive to receiving the machine learning operation from the at least one execution unit;
• performing the machine learning operation to generate inference data;
• and
• returning at least a portion of the inference data to the at least one execution unit.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising code which, when executed on a processor, causes the processor to:

• execute an instruction responsive to a command to process data on an execution engine;
• submit a machine learning operation on the execution engine responsive to the instruction via a direct pathway to a neural engine, the direct pathway enabling the execution engine to bypass a control unit to communicate with the neural engine;
• execute a machine learning model on the neural engine responsive to the machine learning operation;
• perform the machine learning operation on the neural engine to generate inference data;
• and
• return at least a portion of the inference data to the execution engine for processing the data.