US Patent 7107439 System and method of controlling software decompression through exceptions

When processor instructions are required for execution, a misaligned address is sent to the processor. The misaligned instruction address causes a computer processor exception. The computer system automatically executes an exception handling routine that transforms data into at least one executable instruction for the processor. In embodiments, data is transformed by decompressing a compressed instruction, decrypting an encrypted instruction, decoding a macro instruction, or transforming a non-native instruction into at least one instruction.