A system and method are described for extracting a compound variable length computer instruction from a compound instruction stream that is each subdivided into a variable number of instruction bytes, and for aligning the instruction bytes of independent instructions among the composite instructions. The system receives a portion of the composite instruction stream and uses an extract shifter to extract the first set of instruction bytes starting with the first instruction byte. The instruction byte set is then passed to the alignment latch, where it is aligned and output to the next instruction detector. The next instruction detector determines the end point of the first instruction based on the instruction byte set. The extract shifter is used for the instruction to extract the next set of bytes and provide it to the sort shifter. The sort shifter sorts and outputs the next instruction. The process is repeated for the remaining instruction bytes in the compound instruction stream. Isolated complex instructions are decoded into nano-instructions processed by the RISC processor core.
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