Data processing apparatus for highly parallel execution of stored programs

摘要

A processor is described which achieves highly parallel execution of programs represented in data-flow form. The processor operates in a data-driven fashion; that is, an instruction of a program in the processor is enabled for execution upon the arrival of all required operands, and upon being executed, sends copies of the resulting value to all instructions which require it for their execution. The processor incorporates a form of deadlock prevention between the instructions of a data-flow program, allowing a value to be generated by an instruction and sent to the successor instructions in the computation only when those instructions are ready to receive the value. The incorporation of this mechanism prevents the possibility of conflict between successive stages of a pipelined computation and between successive iterations of an iterative computation.