Vector Unit Instructions - Nintendo Ultra64 Programmer's Manual

Revision 1.0
Chapter 3
3.

Vector Unit Instructions

Details about each specific instruction are contained in Appendix A, but it is
useful to discuss issues common to all of the vector unit instructions, as well
as to discuss each related group of vector unit instructions in context.
There are two categories of vector unit instructions discussed in this chapter:
• Vector Loads/Stores/Moves. These are actually scalar unit
instructions (executed in the SU, possibly in parallel with VU
computational instructions) which load/store/modify vector unit
general purpose or control registers.
• Vector Computational Instructions. These instructions are executed
in the vector unit in parallel with any scalar instructions.
All of these instructions are implemented with the MIPS coprocessor
extensions to the MIPS R4000 Instruction Set Architecture, which permit
coprocessor-specific interpretation of some instruction bits. It is these
"coprocessor-specific" details which are the subject of this chapter.
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