1. A data processor having a plurality of clusters, each said cluster comprising an instruction execution pipeline, each said instruction execution pipeline comprising N processing stages, each of said N processing stages capable of performing at least one of a plurality of execution steps associated with instructions being executed by said clusters, said data processor comprising: an interrupt and exception controller that (i) detects an exception condition associated with one of said executing instructions, said one of said executing instructions issued at time t 0, and (ii) generates an exception in response to said exception condition upon completed execution of earlier ones of said executing instructions, said earlier ones of said executing instructions issued at time preceding t 0.