1. A method for executing a branch instruction, comprising the steps of: receiving a program counter value, the program counter value pointing to an address of a branch instruction; accessing the branch instruction in response to the program counter value, the branch instruction having a first portion for indicating a condition to be evaluated and a second portion for indicating a branch offset value; using a programmable logic array to decode the first portion of the branch instruction both to access a series of instructions used during execution of the branch instruction and to provide a plurality of control signals, the programmable logic array being used to decode a plurality of instructions which include but are not limited to the branch instruction; providing a plurality of sequence inputs wherein each of the plurality of sequence inputs corresponds to one of the series of instructions; providing the sequence inputs to a state sequencer, the state sequencer using each of the plurality of sequence inputs to control execution of the branch instruction; determining a data value in response to a first one of the plurality of control signals; generating a mask value in response to a second one of the plurality of control signals; logically combining the mask value with the data value to form a masked data value; testing the masked data value to determine if the masked data value is equal to a first predetermined value; generating a condition detect signal in response to the step of testing the masked data value, the condition detect signal being asserted if the condition is satisfied and being negated if the condition is not satisfied; incrementing the address of the branch instruction by a second predetermined value to produce an incremented address; adding the incremented address to the branch offset value to produce a branch address if the condition detect signal is asserted; and storing the branch address as the program counter value if the condition detect signal is asserted and storing the incremented address as the program counter value if the condition detect signal is negated.