There is disclosed a processing apparatus including, as an instruction set, a complex conditional branch instruction, and a condition setting instruction. The complex conditional branch instruction is an instruction for performing comparison operation for one or each of a plural number of conditions, and for performing branching to a branch target specified, based on comparison operation between the results of the comparison operations performed and the branching condition value specified. The condition setting instruction is an instruction for setting the condition. The processing apparatus includes a complex condition setting storage unit for storing the complex condition specified by the condition setting instruction, a condition comparison unit including a plurality of comparators for comparing the complex condition specified by the complex conditional branch instruction, in the complex condition setting storage unit, at the time of execution of the complex conditional branch instruction, a complex condition branching decision unit for determining on whether or not branching to the branch target is to be performed, using the results of comparisons performed in the comparators of the condition comparison unit and the branching condition value specified by the complex conditional branch instruction.