Processor suspension buffer and instruction queue

A processor includes a processing engine, an address queue, an address generation unit, and logic circuitry. The processing engine is configured to process instructions that access data in an external memory. The address generation unit is configured to generate respective addresses for the instructions to be processed by the processing engine, to provide the addresses to the processing engine, and to write the addresses to the address queue. The logic circuitry is configured to access the external memory on behalf of the processing engine while compensating for variations in access latency to the external memory, by reading the addresses from the address queue, and executing the instructions in the external memory in accordance with the addresses read from the address queue.