A data processing system is provided with a digital signal processor that has a set of instructions for intermingling byte fields selected from a selected pair of source operands and storing the ordered result in a selected destination register. A first 32-bit operand is treated as four 8-bit fields while a second 32-bit operand is treated as four 8-bit fields. Intermingling circuitry is operable to form an ordered result in accordance with each one of the set of byte intermingling instructions. An instruction is provided that performs a shift right and byte merge operation. Another instruction is provided that performs a shift left and byte merge operation. Another instruction is provided that perform a byte swap operation. A set of instructions are provided that perform various byte packing and unpacking operations.