JPH0247785A - Execution temporary stopping system for data flow computer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain a processing of debugging, etc., by temporarily accumulating the operated data flowing through a network in a data absorbing part, and temporarily stopping the execution of a program. CONSTITUTION:At the time of a program execution, the discriminating means of a data absorbing part 6 discriminates whether or not the data operated in an arithmetic part 2 is those designated beforehand. When they are discrimi nated not to be the same data, the operated data are sent to a program housing part 1, the next processing is continuously executed, when the operated data are discriminated to be the same, the operated data and their arriving timing are housed to an external memory 3, the flow of the data to the program hous ing part 1 is stopped, and the program execution is stopped. When an execution starting instruction is received, the data housed in the external memory 3 are outputted to the program housing part 1 according to the arriving timing. Conse quently, the data are successively supplied to the program housing part 1, and the program execution is restarted.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION <Field of Industrial Application> The present invention relates to an execution suspension method for a self-synchronizing data flow computer that synchronizes processing based on its own data flow.

<Prior art> With the recent rapid development of information processing technology, there is an increasing demand for high-speed processing of large amounts of data such as image information.
Non-Neumann data flow computers, which have a hardware configuration that can perform parallel operations on any number of instructions in a program as soon as the manual data is available, have been researched, developed, and are being put into practical use.

As the above-mentioned data flow computer, for example, one shown in FIG. 5 is known. This computer is
A communication network 4 connects a program storage unit 1 that stores programs consisting of instruction cells translated by a compiler (not shown), an arithmetic unit 2 that includes a plurality of adders and multipliers, and an external memory 3 that stores data to be processed. Connected in a loop. When data from the arithmetic unit 2 or data from the external memory 3 is written to the operands of the plurality of instruction cells in the program storage unit 2, the data is sent to the data waiting unit 5, where the data waits until all operands are ready. I am forced to do it. Thereafter, the data is sent to a predetermined arithmetic unit of the arithmetic unit 2 for arithmetic processing, and the arithmetic result data is sent to the next processing unit in the program storage unit l via the communication network 4 according to the instruction cell number of the next process that the instruction cell has as data. It is supplied to the instruction cell of the process, which is then executed. In other words, a number of instruction cells with operands flow through the loop-shaped communication network 4 in a pipeline manner, as indicated by the circles in the figure, and are processed in parallel by the arithmetic unit 2.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> However, the -F data flow computer does not execute processing by clock synchronization like the conventional Neumann type computer, but executes processing by instruction cells flowing through the communication network 4 as described above. This is a so-called self-synchronization method. Therefore, it is not possible to stop the clock and pause the program execution.
The only way to pause execution is to stop the computer itself. In other words, the self-synchronized data flow computer has the disadvantage that it cannot substantially suspend program execution and cannot perform debugging or the like.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an execution suspension method for a data flow computer that temporarily suspends program execution in a self-synchronized data flow computer to enable debugging, etc., by providing a data absorption unit in a network. The goal is to provide the following.

Means for Solving the Problems> In order to achieve the above object, the execution suspension method of the self-synchronized data flow computer of the present invention incorporates a program storage section, an external memory, an arithmetic unit consisting of a plurality of arithmetic units, etc. A data absorption unit is interposed in the network to be coupled, and the data absorption unit includes a memory, a determination means for determining whether the data calculated by the calculation unit is prespecified data, and this determination means. data control means for transmitting the calculated data to the program storage unit when the determination means determines no, and storing the calculated data and its arrival timing in the memory when the determination means determines yes; The present invention is characterized by comprising a data output means for receiving an execution restart command and outputting the data stored in the memory to the program storage unit according to the timing, thereby making it possible to temporarily stop the execution of the program.

<Operation> When the program is executed, the determining means of the data absorbing section determines whether the data, such as the next processing instruction cell number in the instruction cell, calculated by the calculating section is prespecified data. The data control means sends the calculated data to the program storage section when the determination means determines no, and when the determination means determines yes,
The calculated data and its arrival timing are stored in memory. Therefore, in the former case, the above data is supplied to the operand of, for example, a specific next processing instruction cell in the program storage section, and the next processing is continued.

On the other hand, in the latter case, since the calculated data is sequentially stored in the memory of the data absorption section, the flow of data to the program storage section is stopped, and the execution of the program is stopped. Next, the data output means receives the execution restart command and outputs the data stored in the memory to the program storage unit according to the arrival timing. Therefore, data is successively supplied to the program storage section, and execution of the program is restarted.

<Example> Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to illustrated embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing the hardware structure of a self-synchronized data flow computer employing the execution suspension method of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a program storage unit that stores a program made up of a plurality of instruction cells, 2 is an arithmetic unit that is made up of a plurality of arithmetic units such as an adder and a multiplier, 3 is an external memory that stores data to be processed, and 4 is a communication network that connects these parts in a loop,
Reference numeral 5 denotes a data waiting section, which is interposed in the communication network 4a between the program storage section l and the calculation section 2, and waits for data until an instruction cell sent from the program storage section I has its operands; and 6, the above-mentioned calculation section. This is a data absorption section that is interposed in the communication network 4b that sends the calculation results of the instruction cells by the section 2 to the program storage section l, and each section other than this data absorption section 6 is designated by the same number 1 as in the conventional example shown in FIG.
It is the same as each part shown in ~5.

The data absorption section 6 includes a memory (not shown) and a calculation section 2.
a determining means for determining whether the next processing command cell number (node number) included in the command cell calculated by and sent via the communication network 4b is a prespecified command cell number; When this determination means determines no,
a data control means for sending the computed instruction cells to the program storage section l, and sequentially storing the computed instruction cells and their arrival timings in the memory when the discrimination means determines yes; and a data output means for outputting the instruction cells stored in the memory to the program storage section l according to the arrival timing, and a discriminating means for these.

The data control means and the data output means are specifically constituted by the CPU of the data flow computer.

The memory includes a data absorption section 6 as shown in FIG.
The command cells that have arrived and their arrival timings, that is, the offset times from the point in time (breakpoint) when the determining means determines that they are positive, are sequentially stored.

The execution suspension method of the self-synchronizing data flow computer having the above configuration will be described below with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 3 and 4.

First, in step S1 of FIG. 3, the operator sets the instruction cell number corresponding to the program step to be stopped in the data absorption section 6 as stop condition data. Then, in step S2, the determining means of the data absorption unit 6 determines that the instruction cell number for the next process included in the instruction cell calculated by the calculation unit 2 and sent via the communication network 4b as the program is executed is It is determined whether the instruction cell number is equal to the instruction cell number set above. Then, the data control means of the data absorption section 6 sends the operated instruction cell to the program storage section l when the judgment section judges no, and uses it as the operand of the instruction cell for the next process in the program storage section 1. The calculation result is supplied and the next process is continued, and the determining means determines the number of the instruction cell that will arrive next.

On the other hand, when the determination means makes a positive determination, the data control means proceeds to step S3 and stores the calculated instruction cell and its arrival timing in the memory as shown in FIG.
Next, in step S4, it is determined whether or not a command cell is flowing through the communication network 4b. In this case, since the operated instruction cells are sequentially stored in the memory, the supply of instruction cells to the program storage section 1 is stopped after a predetermined period of time, and at the same time, the execution of the program is completed.

Next, when an execution restart command is input to the data absorption unit 6 to restart the execution of the program, the data output means
At step S1 in the figure, the instruction cell and its arrival timing are read from the memory, and at step S2, the instruction cell is output to the program storage section l according to the arrival timing. Then, the operation results are successively supplied to the operands of the next processing instruction cells in the program storage unit 1, and the execution of the program is restarted. Finally, in step S3, the data output means determines whether all the instruction cells in the memory have been output, and if it is determined in the affirmative, the restart of program execution is completed.

In this way, in the data flow computer of the above embodiment, the data absorption section 6 is interposed in the communication network that connects the program storage section 1 and the calculation section 2, etc. It is determined whether or not the received command cell has a pre-designated command cell number, and when it is determined not, the data control means sends the command cell to the program storage section 1 to continue executing the program. , when the instruction cell is determined to be positive, the instruction cell is stored in the memory along with its arrival timing, and execution of the program is stopped, while the instruction cell stored in the memory is stored in the memory with its arrival timing by the data output means that received the instruction to resume execution. Accordingly, the program is outputted to the program storage unit 1 and the execution of the program is resumed. Therefore, even in a self-synchronized data flow computer, execution of the program can be temporarily stopped and processing such as debugging can be reliably performed.

In the above embodiment, the instruction cell number is specified as the stop condition data, but it may also be possible to specify this using the operand value of the instruction cell. Furthermore, it goes without saying that the execution suspension method of the self-synchronizing data flow computer of the present invention is not limited to the illustrated embodiment.

<Effects of the Invention> As is clear from the above explanation, the execution suspension method of the data flow computer of the present invention involves interposing a data absorption section in the network that connects the program storage section and the calculation section, etc. The determining means of the section determines whether or not the calculated data is prespecified data, and when it is determined that it is not, the data control means sends the calculated data to the program storage section and determines that it is positive. At this time, the calculated data and its arrival timing are stored in the memory, and the data stored in the memory is outputted to the program storage section according to the arrival timing by the data output means that receives the instruction to resume execution. , it is possible to temporarily store the calculated data flowing through the network in the data absorption unit, to temporarily stop the execution of the program, and to enable processing such as debugging.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the hardware structure of a self-synchronized data flow computer that employs the execution suspension method of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the memory contents of the data absorption unit in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in the above execution suspension method, and FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the hardware structure of a conventional data flow computer. l Program storage section, 2. Arithmetic section, 3. External memory, 4. Communication network, 6. Data absorption section. Figure 1 Patent applicant Sharp Corporation Agent
One patent attorney, Haka Maeda, and Figure 2, Figure 2, Figure 2.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A program storage unit, an external memory, an arithmetic unit consisting of multiple arithmetic units, etc. are connected in a loop through a network,
In a self-synchronizing data flow computer that synchronizes processing by its own data flow, a data absorption section is interposed in the network, and this data absorption section has memory and data computed by the arithmetic section in advance. a determining means for determining whether or not the data is the specified data; and when the determining means determines no, the calculated data is sent to the program storage section, and when the determining means determines yes, the above-mentioned A data control means for storing the calculated data and its arrival timing in the memory, and a data output means for receiving an execution restart command and outputting the data stored in the memory to the program storage unit according to the timing. , a method for suspending execution of a data flow computer, characterized in that execution of a program can be temporarily halted.