Combining instructions from different branches for execution in a single n-way VLIW processing element of a multithreaded processor

1. A data processing system comprising:

a first processor operable to execute a program partitioned into a plurality of discrete instructions, the first processor comprising a plurality of processing elements, each processing element capable of executing n instructions per cycle, wherein n is an integer greater than 1; and

an interface configured to, on detecting a branch operation by a program creating m number of branches each having a different sequence of instructions, wherein m is an integer greater than 1, combine an instruction from one of the branches with an instruction from at least one of the other branches to form a combined instruction so as to cause at least one processing element to execute the combined instruction during a single cycle, wherein each processing element of said first processor is an n-way very long instruction word (VLIW) processor.

2. A data processing system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein m is less than n.

3. A data processing system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein m and n are equal.

4. A data processing system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein instructions from each of the branches are combined so as to cause each processing element to execute at least one instruction from each branch per cycle.

5. A data processing system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the first processor is configured such that, per cycle, each processing element executes the same instructions as the other processing elements.

6. A data processing system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the sequence of instructions for each branch is independent from the sequence of instructions of the other branches.

7. A data processing system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein each sequence of instructions comprises at least one instruction that is dependent on a previous instruction in that sequence and at least one instruction that is independent of a previous instruction in that sequence.

8. A data processing system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein each sequence of instructions comprises n sequential instructions that are capable of being executed in parallel and n sequential instructions that are not capable of being executed in parallel.

9. A data processing system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the branches are created in accordance with the program.

10. A data processing system as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising a compiler configured to read the program and compile the program into a plurality of processing element executable instructions.

11. A data processing system as claimed in claim 10 , wherein the interface is configured to mimic a processor comprising a plurality of processing elements each being capable of executing no more than one instruction per cycle.

12. A data processing system as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the interface is configured to generate a message comprising parameters of the mimicked processor and send the message to the compiler.

13. A data processing system as claimed in claim 10 , wherein the first processor is a graphics processing unit (GPU) and the compiler is configured to generate instructions for the processing elements from Open Computing Language (OpenCL) code.

14. A data processing system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the interface comprises a compiler configured to read the program and compile the program into a plurality of processing element executable instructions.

15. A data processing system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the first processor is capable of concurrently supporting a plurality of threads.

16. A data processing system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the first processor is a single instruction multiple thread (SIMT) processor.

17. A data processing system as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising a masking logic circuit configured to prevent the at least one processing element from executing one of the instructions in the combined instruction and allow execution of another instruction in the combined instruction prior to the at least one processing element executing the combined instruction during the single cycle.

18. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a compiler comprising computer readable code, said compiler being configured to compile a program into a plurality of instructions executable at a first processor comprising a plurality of processing elements, each processing element capable of executing n instructions per cycle, wherein n is an integer greater than 1, the compiler being configured to:

read the program and, on detecting a branch operation creating m number of branches wherein m is an integer greater than 1 and each branch having a different sequence of instructions, combine an instruction from one of the branches with an instruction from at least one of the other branches to form a combined instruction so as to cause at least one processing element to execute the combined instruction during a single cycle, wherein each processing element of said first processor is an n-way very long instruction word (VLIW) processor.

19. A method of executing a program partitioned into a plurality of discrete instructions, comprising:

detecting a branch operation by a program creating m number of branches, wherein m is an integer greater than 1, each branch having a different sequence of instructions;

combining an instruction from one of the branches with an instruction from at least one of the other branches to form a combined instruction; and

causing at least one processing element of a first processor having a plurality of processing elements each capable of executing more than one instruction per cycle to execute the combined instruction during a single cycle, wherein each processing element of said first processor is an n-way very long instruction word (VLIW) processor.