Mechanism for implementing vector address pointer registers in system having parallel, on-chip DSP module and CPU core

An integrated circuit data processing system comprising:

• a shared internal bus for transferring both data and instructions;
• a shared bus interface unit connected to the shared internal bus and connectable via a shared external bus to a shared external memory array such that instructions and data held in the shared external memory array are transferrable to the shared internal bus via the shared bus interface unit;
• a general purpose (GP) central processing unit (CPU) connected to the shared internal bus for retrieving GP instructions, the GP CPU including means for executing GP instructions to process data retrieved by the GP CPU from the shared internal bus;
• a digital signal processor (DSP) module connected to the shared internal bus, the DSP module including means for processing an externally-provided digital signal received by the DSP module by executing DSP command-list instructions, execution of DSP command-list code instructions by the DSP module being independent of and in parallel with execution of GP instructions by the GP CPU;
• and
• a DSP memory element for holding both vector DSP command-list code instructions and vector operand data for utilization by the DSP module, the DSP memory element connected to the DSP module by a dedicated DSP bus, but not connected to the shared internal bus;
• and
• wherein the DSP module includes at least one vector address pointer register that includes an address field that identifies an address of vector operand data that can be retrieved from the DSP memory element by the DSP module via the DSP bus for use by the DSP module in executing vector DSP command-list code instructions, an address wrap-around field that facilitates wrap-around of the address field, and an increment field that is used for incrementing the address field.