Zero anticipation method and apparatus

A zero anticipation mechanism for an arithmetic unit 42 of a processing engine includes an array of cells 420, 430 interconnected to produce an ordered sequence of intermediate anticipation signals. The array of cells includes cells connected to receive intermediate result signals from the arithmetic unit, cells for forwarding an intermediate anticipation signal supplied thereto, and cells for generating a combination of first intermediate anticipation signals and second intermediate anticipation signals supplied thereto. The zero anticipation mechanism implements a zero look-ahead mechanism which can predict a zero result 479 prior to the arithmetic unit completing an arithmetic operation.