Methods and systems are disclosed for processing a vector by a vector processor. Techniques disclosed include receiving predicated instructions by a scheduler, each of which is associated with an opcode, a vector of elements, and a predicate. The techniques further include executing the predicated instructions. Executing a predicated instruction includes compressing, based on an index derived from a predicate of the instruction, elements in a vector of the instruction, where the elements in the vector are contiguously mapped, then, after the mapped elements are processed, decompressing the processed mapped elements, where the processed mapped elements are reverse mapped based on the index.