Bit memory instructions for a general CPU

Embedded memories in an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) consume most of the chip area. Data variables of different widths require more memory than needed because they are rounded up to nearest power of 2, i.e., 6 to 8 bits, 11 to 16 bits, and 25 to 32 bits. This can be avoided by adding two bit oriented load and store instructions. The memories can still be 8, 16 or 32 bits wide, but the loads and stores can have arbitrary variable sizes. The hardware changes within the processor are small and an extra hardware block between the processor and the memory is added.