1. A processing system, comprising: a buffer; a hardware processor that includes an execution unit; a plurality of software accessible registers; and a data moving engine coupled to the execution unit, the software accessible registers, and the buffer, wherein execution of a first instruction associates a memory address of the buffer with one of the software accessible registers, and thereafter the data moving engine resolves a conditional branch instruction, which specifies the one of the software accessible registers, by testing a value corresponding to a number of elements to be accessed from the buffer, wherein the value is stored in a location which is determined based on the memory address of the buffer, wherein the location is not part of the buffer.