A semiconductor chip is described that includes an instruction execution unit having a functional unit, said functional unit having minimum and maximum comparison circuitry followed by interleaving circuitry, said minimum and maximum comparison circuitry to respectively identify minimums and maximums of same positioned elements from two different sets of sorted elements, said interleaving circuitry to interleave said minimums and maximums to help form a third sorted set composed of elements from said different sets and being larger than each of said different sets.