Apparatus for processing character string moves in a data processing system

Claim 1

In a data processing system configured to transfer data in words, an apparatus for manipulating data stored in bytes, said apparatus comprising: a) instruction decoding means for decoding instructions including a single data manipulation instruction for manipulating a contiguous variable length and longer than a word sequence of data stored in bytes and providing a command signal in response to the single manipulation instruction; b) memory means for storing data as addressable words, each word including a plurality of bytes; c) means in response to a command signal from said instruction decoding means for accessing said contiguous variable length sequence of bytes from said memory means, a first byte of said sequence stored in said memory means on a non-word boundary; and d) means for providing said sequence to a plurality of data processing registers, said first byte of the sequence aligned on a first register boundary, said providing means including: i) means for altering locations of bytes in the byte sequence; and ii) means for comparing bytes in the sequence with a predetermined byte; and e) means for storing said byte sequence in said data processing registers to said memory means by updating individual byte locations in said memory means, said means for storing said byte sequence including means for storing a predetermined byte in the trailing byte locations in the last word of the byte sequence in the register means.