Itanium® Architecture for Programmers: Understanding 64-Bit Processors and EPIC Principles

12.2. Integer Parallel Operations

When we first introduced floating-point instructions, we correlated them with their integer counterparts. Similarly, we now introduce the Itanium integer parallel operations by analogy to operations on full-width data.

Table 12-2 lists the Itanium instructions that perform operations on multiple bytes, words, or double words packed in the 64-bit integer registers. Because of the heritage from other architectures, these instructions for integer parallel operations are also commonly called multimedia instructions. Analogies are drawn to instructions that operate with 64-bit data where appropriate.

The final character in the opcode for any of these instructions (1, 2, or 4) signifies that it works with 8 bytes, ...