A data flow architecture or language performs a computation when all the operands are available. Data flow is one kind of data driven architecture, the other is demand driven. It is a technique for specifying parallel computation at a fine-grain level, usually in the form of two-dimensional graphs in which instructions that are available for concurrent execution are written alongside each other while those that must be executed in sequence are written one under the other. Data dependencies between instructions are indicated by directed arcs. Instructions do not reference memory since the data dependence arcs allow data to be transmitted directly from the producing instruction to the consuming one. Data flow schemes differ chiefly in the way that they handle re-entrant code. Static schemes disallow it, dynamic schemes use either "code copying" or "tagging" at every point of reentry. An example of a data flow architecture is MIT's VAL machine.

In computer programming, dataflow programming is a programming paradigm that models a program as a directed graph of the data flowing between operations, thus implementing dataflow principles and architecture. Dataflow programming languages share some features of functional languages, and were generally developed in order to bring some functional concepts to a language more suitable for numeric processing.

Dataflow architecture is a 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 execution of instructions is solely determined based on the availability of input arguments to the instructions, so that the order of instruction execution is unpredictable, i.

Google Cloud Dataflow is a fully managed service for executing Apache Beam pipelines within the Google Cloud Platform ecosystem.

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.

<language> (Always called "Id") A non-strict, {single assignment} language and incremental compiler developed by Arvind and Gostelow and used on MIT's {Tagged-Token Dataflow Architecture} and planned to be used on Motorola's Monsoon. See also Id Nouveau. ["An Asynchronous Programming Language for a Large Multiprocessor Machine", Arvind et al, TR114a, Dept ISC, UC Irvine, Dec 1978]. ["The U-Interpreter", Arvind et al, Computer 15(2):42-50, 1982]. (1998-02-14)

<programming> A process to discover the dependencies between different data items manipulated by a program. The order of execution in a data driven language is determined solely by the data dependencies. For example, given the equations 1. X = A + B 2. B = 2 + 2 3. A = 3 + 4 a data-flow analysis would find that 2 and 3 must be evaluated before 1. Since there are no data dependencies between 2 and 3, they may be evaluated in any order, including in parallel. This technique is implemented in hardware in some pipelined processors with multiple functional units. It allows instructions to be executed as soon as their inputs are available, independent of the original program order. (1996-05-13)

Data-flow analysis is a technique for gathering information about the possible set of values calculated at various points in a computer program. A program's control-flow graph (CFG) is used to determine those parts of a program to which a particular value assigned to a variable might propagate.

<programming> A graphical notation used to describe how data flows between processes in a system. Data flow diagrams are an important tool of most structured analysis techniques. http://smartdraw.com/resources/centers/software/dfd.htm. (2003-05-17)

A data-flow diagram is a way of representing a flow of data through a process or a system (usually an information system). The DFD also provides information about the outputs and inputs of each entity and the process itself.