1. A method of performing byte operations in a processor, comprising the steps of: loading to an internal register means a content of a selected memory location, said internal register means having registers of N bytes, said content containing an unaligned byte reference of M bytes in size where M is any integer no more than N, the register means and said selected memory location being addressed by an unaligned address to said unaligned byte reference but said content being aligned in said multiple-byte format; said step of loading being performed by a single instruction executed by said processor performing in said processor an operation on said content, said operation changing only said unaligned byte reference in said internal register means; and thereafter storing said content of said internal register means to said selected memory location aligned in multiple-byte format using said unaligned address; wherein said step of performing an operation includes extracting said unaligned byte reference from the content of said internal register means, performing an arithmetic or logic operation on said extracted unaligned byte reference to produce a result, then inserting the result into said content of said internal register means at said unaligned byte reference before said step of storing.