Programmable vector engine for efficient beam search

To perform a beam search operation on an input tensor using a data processor with native hardware support, the data processor can be programmed with a set of instructions. The set of instructions can include a first machine instruction that operates on the input tensor to obtain N largest values in the input tensor, a second machine instruction that operates on the input tensor to obtain indices corresponding to the N largest values in the input tensor, and a third machine instruction that operates on the input tensor to replace the N largest values in the input tensor with a minimum value.