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A High-Level Dataflow System

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Abstract

This paper presents a new dataflow graph model, where only data tokens are allowed to flow. First we introduce a High-Level Dataflow System (HLDS) to describe a formal dataflow graph model, then we present a homogeneous HLDS (hHLDS) that formally describes our proposal. In this proposal the dataflow graph is obtained by employing only actors with homogeneous I/O conditions, that is, each actor, which executes an elemental operation, is characterised by having one output and two input arcs. Even though no control tokens are allowed, i.e. no T-gate, merge, and switch actors are present in this model, it is always possible to obtain dataflow graphs, which represent any programming structure and whose behaviour is well-behaved. As homogeneous I/O conditions are a severe restriction to represent the flow of a computation and the token flow in such dataflow graphs is completely asynchronous, proof is given to guarantee their determinacy. The main advantage of this representation is that it maps directly to hardware through a one-to-one correspondence between actors of the model and Functional Units of a dataflow machine.

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  1. Istituto per la Ricerca sui Sistemi Informatici Paralleli - CNR, Via P. Castellino, 111, 80131, Napoli, Italy

    L. Verdoscia & R. Vaccaro

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  1. L. Verdoscia
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  2. R. Vaccaro
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Verdoscia, L., Vaccaro, R. A High-Level Dataflow System. Computing 60, 285–305 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02684377

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