implement three way branches then a program path can be expressed in a guard value by two bits guard values can also express conditional program paths due to subsequent branching in the branch delay period by concatenation the specification of the operation within operation parcels 410 470 contain similar subfields such as opcodes and operands as described herein above with respect to specifications 210 270 in fig2 the contents of these issue slots 321 327 the operation of the functional units 331 337 and the format of specifications in operation parcels 410 470 are to be regarded as exemplary and may be adjusted to suit any useful configuration multiplexer 355 has inputs coupled to the instruction register 320 at issue slots 325a and 325b the output of multiplexer 355 is coupled to the floating point unit 335 thus multiplexer 355 routes an opcode and operands from one of the issue slots 325a and 325b to the floating point unit 335 similarly a multiplexer 356 has inputs coupled to the instruction register 320 at issue slots 326a and 326b and the output of multiplexer 356 is coupled to the data memory unit 336 thus multiplexer 356 routes an opcode and operands from one of the issue slots 326a.