Exploring the Approaches to Data Flow Computing

Architectures based on the data flow computing model provide an alternative to the conventional Von-Neumann architecture that are widely used for general purpose computing. Processors based on the data flow architecture employ fine-grain data-driven parallelism. These architectures have the potential to exploit the inherent parallelism in compute intensive applications like signal processing, image and video processing and so on and can thus achieve faster throughputs and higher power efficiency. In this paper, several data flow computing architectures are explored, and their main architectural features are studied. Furthermore, a classification of the processors is presented based on whether they employ either the data flow execution model exclusively or in combination with the control flow model and are accordingly grouped as exclusive data flow or hybrid architectures. The hybrid category is further subdivided as conjoint or accelerator-style architectures depending on how they deploy and separate the data flow and control flow execution model within their execution blocks. Lastly, a brief comparison and discussion of their advantages and drawbacks is also considered. From this study we conclude that although the data flow architectures are seen to have matured significantly, issues like data-structure handling and lack of efficient placement and scheduling algorithms have prevented these from becoming commercially viable.