Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!gatech!hubcap!mcvax!nikhefh.hep.nl!arthur
From: mcvax!nikhefh.hep.nl!arthur@uunet.UU.NET (Arthur Veen)
Newsgroups: comp.parallel
Subject: Dataflow machines exist
Message-ID: <1919@hubcap.UUCP>
Date: 15 Jun 88 16:08:17 GMT
Sender: fpst@hubcap.UUCP
Lines: 24
Approved: parallel@hubcap.clemson.edu

Just to set the record straight: allthough the dataflow field is full of
paper designs, a few machines have been built, tested and (to some extent)
evaluated. 
In [1] I list 12 machines that I assumed to have reached the
operational stage. I was too optimistic about Arvind's machine and I have
not heard anything about the japanese PIM-D either. At the other hand the
Sigma-1 is probably operational by now. That leaves 10 or 11
machines that have actually run programs. Of these the Image Pipelined
processor uPD7281 from NEC is a static dataflow processing element on a
chip that has been incorporated in several machines (of which I 
have no details).
Finally , work is going on here in The Netherlands on a
commercial dataflow machine of which the first prototype is nearing
completion. Keep a look-out for its announcement.
The dataflow field is less fashionable (and less crowded) than it was 5 years 
ago but certainly  not dead.

[1]  A.H. Veen "Dataflow Machine Architecture" 
     ACM Computing Surveys 18(4), Dec 1986

     Arthur H. Veen
     Parallel Computing
     Postbus 16775
     1001 RG  Amsterdam
     The Netherlands