Synchronous Data Flow

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Synchronous Data Flow" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

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.^[1]

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.^[1]

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.

• Kahn process networks
• Petri net
• Dataflow architecture
• Digital signal processing § Implementation

• Synchronous Data Flow, Edward A. Lee and David G. Messerschmitt, 1987
• Embedded Software Systems course - Synchronous Dataflow
• SDF analysis and visualization tools
• Kahn Process Networks and a Reactive Extension

This computer science article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e