According to the claimed invention, a microcomputer apparatus is disclosed. The microcomputer apparatus comprises a processing unit for executing instructions and a loop counter coupled to the processing unit for receiving and storing a loop count value according to a loop instruction executed by the processing unit wherein the processing unit decrements the loop count value stored in the loop counter each time an instruction is looped, and when the processing unit encounters a loop instruction, the processing unit will loop the instruction previous to the loop instruction a number of times as defined by the loop count value.