Patent attributes
A SIMD microprocessor is configured to execute programs divided into discrete phases. A scheduler is provided for scheduling instructions. A plurality of resources are for executing instructions issued by the scheduler, wherein the scheduler is configured to schedule each phase of the program only after receiving an indication that execution of the preceding phase of the program has been completed. By splitting programs into multiple phases and providing a scheduler that is able to determine whether execution of a phase has been completed, each phase can be separately scheduled and the results of preceding phases can be used to inform the scheduling of subsequent phases. In one example, different numbers of threads and/or different numbers of data instances per thread may be processed for different phases of the same program.