1. A method for reporting status of a processing unit to a front end monitoring unit, comprising: asserting an active status signal from the processing unit to the front end monitoring unit when inputs are active, outputs are produced, a memory access is pending, or the processing unit is processing data; asserting an empty status signal from the processing unit to the front end monitoring unit when inputs are not active, outputs are not produced, a memory access is not pending, and the processing unit is not processing data; and asserting a stalled status signal from the processing unit to the front end monitoring unit when inputs are active and the processing unit can process the inputs.