data flow
data flow
[′dad·ə ‚flō] (communications)
The route followed by a data message from its origination to its destination, including all the nodes through which it travels.
(computer science)
The transfer of data from an external storage device, through the processing unit and memory, and out to an external storage device.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
data flow
A data flow architecture or language performs a computation
when all the operands are available. Data flow is one kind
of data driven architecture, the other is demand driven.
It is a technique for specifying parallel computation at a
fine-grain level, usually in the form of two-dimensional
graphs in which instructions that are available for concurrent
execution are written alongside each other while those that
must be executed in sequence are written one under the other.
Data dependencies between instructions are indicated by
directed arcs. Instructions do not reference memory since the
data dependence arcs allow data to be transmitted directly
from the producing instruction to the consuming one.
Data flow schemes differ chiefly in the way that they handle re-entrant code. Static schemes disallow it, dynamic schemes use either "code copying" or "tagging" at every point of reentry.
An example of a data flow architecture is MIT's VAL machine.
Data flow schemes differ chiefly in the way that they handle re-entrant code. Static schemes disallow it, dynamic schemes use either "code copying" or "tagging" at every point of reentry.
An example of a data flow architecture is MIT's VAL machine.
This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)