1. A method of operating a general purpose processor (GPP) coupled via a port of the GPP to an application specific data path of an application specific instruction set processor (ASIP), comprising the steps of: conveying a GPP instruction to a pre-decoder of said ASIP via said GPP port; in said pre-decoder, translating said received GPP instruction to a form compatible with an instruction set architecture (ISA) of said ASIP; executing in said ASIP at least one ASIP compatible instructions resulting from said translation step; and conveying a result of said execution step to said GPP.