Safety and Optimization Transformations for Data Flow Programs

Abstract

The data flow concept of computation seeks to achieve high performance by allowing concurrent execution of instructions based on the availability of data. This thesis explores the translation of a subset of the high level languages VAL to data flow graphs. The major problem in performing this translation for the target machine. the Dennis-Misunas data flow computer, stems from the restriction that graph execution sequences place at most one value on any given are at any time. The data/acknowledge are pair transformation is introduced as a means of implementing this required operational behavior. Its effect on data flow graph operation is subsequently explored as it relates to correctness and performance.