Synchronous Data Flow (SDF) is a restriction on
Kahn process networks where the number of tokens read and written by each process is known ahead of time. In some cases, processes can be scheduled such that channels have bounded
FIFOs.
Limitations
SDF does not account for asynchronous processes as their token read/write rates will vary. Practically, one can divide the network into synchronous sub-networks connected by asynchronous links. Alternatively a runtime supervisor can enforce
fairness and other desired properties.
Applications
SDF is useful for modeling
digital signal processing (DSP) routines. Models can be compiled to target parallel hardware like
FPGAs, processors with DSP instruction sets like
Qualcomm's Hexagon, and other systems.
See also
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Kahn process networks
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Petri net
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Dataflow architecture
Dataflow architecture is a dataflow-based computer architecture that directly contrasts the traditional von Neumann architecture or control flow architecture. Dataflow architectures have no program counter, in concept: the executability and ex ...
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References
External links
Synchronous Data Flow, Edward A. Lee and David G. Messerschmitt, 1987Embedded Software Systems course - Synchronous DataflowSDF analysis and visualization toolsKahn Process Networks and a Reactive Extension
Computer architecture
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