PARALLEL DATA PROCESSING APPARATUS AND METHOD

Abstract: A parallel data processing apparatus comprises three data storage areas, wherein each of said three data storage areas has means for receiving da­ ta from an external apparatus through a data reception terminal, means for transmitting data to the external apparatus through a data trans­ mission terminal, and means for supplying data to a computation exe­ cution unit and receiving computation results. Said three storage areas can be exclusively and cyclically switched in data reception, data trans­ mission, data computation write and read modes. The said apparatus is further comprising means for controlling the mode switching, means for executing desired computation based on the data, and means for con­ trolling the computation.

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION : 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technique for performing data transfer processing among data processing apparatuses in parallel with data computation in each data processing apparatus, in data processings of a system involving data communication among data processing apparatuses. 2. Brief Description of the Prior Arts In data processing using an array processor as conventional data processing of a system involving data communication among data processing apparatuses, a common data storage area (memory) is used for data transfer (transmission/reception) processing among the processing elements as well as data computation. Therefore, data computation must be executed after completion of data exchange among the processing elements. For this reason, data transfer and data computation must be alternately and repetitively performed. In particular, in matrix multiplication processing involving vector data transfer, since a volume of data to be transferred is large, a processing time of the array processor is prolonged due to overhead of data transfer among the processing elements. For example, a case will be described wherein multiplications of matrices A and B are executed in an array processor shown in Fig. 1. Processing elements have common data storage areas for reception and transmission of component data of the matrix A and for data computation thereof, and data storage areas for reception of component data of the matrix B, for matrix B component data supply to the computation unit, and for reception of computation results therefrom. If the (ℓ,m) matrix A and the (m,n) matrix B are respectively defined as: A jth-column vector |c j in a matrix C = A x B is represented by: where |a i and |b j are respectively a row vector and a column vector, and are respectively represented by: |a t / i represents a transposed vector of a i and symbol "·" represents inner product computation, and for example: Therefore, a series of vector data {|a i } representing the matrix A and a series of vector data {|b j } representing the matrix B are input to the array processor in accordance with a data flow as shown in Fig. 1, so that the components of the matrix C can be computed by pipelined processing in each processing element. Figs. 2A, 2B and 2C show snapshots of array processing when ℓ = 5 and n = 5. In this case, since the data storage areas are commonly used for data exchange and data computation, vector data transfer among the processing elements and inner product computation between vector data are serially performed. For example, at time 3, a processing element PE1 receives data |a₂, and at the same time, transfers retained data |a₁ to a processing element PE2. The processing element PE2 receives the data |a₁ from the processing element PE1 at that time, and externally receives vector data |b₂. At time 4, the processing elements execute inner product computation of the data received at time 3. In the above processing, a time required for data transfer among the processing elements is prolonged, and high-speed processing cannot be achieved. German patent application DE-A-3 506 749 describes a processing element comprising three storage areas and a computation execution unit. Two storage areas receive data from outside said processing element and are read out by the computation execution unit. The result of said computation is written in the third storage area which transmits it to said outside. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION : It is an object of the present invention to provide a data processing apparatus which performs data transfer among data processing apparatuses in parallel with data computation in each data processing apparatus to reduce overhead of time required for data transfer among the data processing apparatuses, thereby achieving high-efficient parallel processing of a system in data processing of the system involving data communication among the data processing apparatuses. In a data processing apparatus of the present invention which has 1) a reception data storage area for receiving data through a data reception terminal from the external apparatus, 2) a transmission data storage area for transmitting data through a data transmission terminal to the external apparatus, and 3) a computation data storage area for supplying data to a computation unit and receiving computation results from it, the data storage areas can be exclusively and cyclically switched in a data reception mode, a data transmission mode, and a data computation mode, and the apparatus comprises means for controlling switching of the data reception, data transmission, and data computation modes of the data storage areas, means for executing desired computation, and means for controlling computation operations, wherein in data processing of a system involving data communication among data processing apparatuses, overhead of a data communication time is reduced, and processing speed becomes higher. According to the present invention, in data processing of a system involving data communication among data processing apparatuses, the data processing in which data transfer among data processing apparatuses can be executed in parallel with data computation in each data processing apparatus, can be allowed, and a processing time can be shortened. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS : Fig. 1 and Figs. 2A, 2B and 2C respectively show an arrangement of a conventional array processor and its processing operation; Fig. 3 and Figs. 4A and 4B respectively show an arrangement of an array processor according to an embodiment of the present invention and its processing operation in multiplication processing of matrices; Figs. 5 and 6 are respectively a block diagram schematically showing the embodiment of the present invention and a view showing a transition of three modes of a control method; Fig. 7 is a block diagram of a control unit according to the embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 8 is a logic circuit of a Mode Control circuit shown in Fig. 7 according to the embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 9 is a logic circuit of a decoder shown in Fig. 7 according to the embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 10 shows a timing chart of three-state cyclical mode transition control of the Mode Control circuit; Fig. 11 shows a timing chart of six-state cyclical mode transition control of the Mode Control circuit; Fig. 12 and Figs. 13A and 13B respectively show an arrangement of an array processor and snapshots of its array processing for explaining an embodiment of the present invention in convolution computation; Figs. 14A, 14B, and 14C show processing flows of vector distance calculation of Dynamic Time Warping in speech recognition; Fig. 15 shows six-state cyclical mode transition control of a control method in the arrangement of the present invention shown in Fig. 5; Fig. 16A shows a flow of cumulative distance calculation of Dynamic Time Warping in speech recognition of processing elements (PEs); Fig. 16B shows a parallel processing flow of cumulative distance calculation of a linear array processor; and Figs. 17A, 17B, 17C, 17D and 17E show parallel processing flows of cumulative calculation executed by the arrangement of the present invention. PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION : The present invention will be described in detail with reference to drawings illustrating embodiments of the present invention. [Embodiment 1] A case will be described wherein multiplications of a (ℓ,m) matrix A and a (m,n) matrix B are processed using a linear array processor. The matrices A and B are respectively defined as: where |a i and |b j are respectively a row vector and a column vector and are respectively represented by: |a t / i represents a transposed vector of a i . If a (i,j) component of a matrix C = A x B is represented by c ij , If a jth-column vector in the matrix C is defined by: then Figs. 4A and 4B show snapshots of array processing when a linear array processor consisting of n processing elements shown in Fig. 3 computes the matrix C in the case of ℓ = n = 5. Data input to the array processor include a series of vector (|a₁, |a₂,..., |a ℓ ), and a series of vector data (|b₁, |b₂,..., |b n ). Fig. 5 is a block diagram schematically showing an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to the arrangement of the processing elements. Reference numerals 1, 2, and 3 denote data storage areas; 4, a computation unit; 5, a control unit; 6, a data reception terminal; 7, a data transmission terminal; and 8 and 9, registers. Each processing element has data storage areas respectively used for data reception, data transmission, and data computation. The capacity of each data storage area corresponds to a size of each vector data, i.e., m data. Each processing element has a data storage area for storing each vector data of the series of vector data (|b₁, |b₂,.... |b n ) and intermediate computation results, and also has a means for executing inner product computation, and a means for controlling data exchange and data reception, data transmission, and data computation modes of the data storage areas. In the operation shown in Figs. 4A and 4B, the processing elements perform parallel computations of the components of the matrix C in a regular data flow, in which the two kinds of vector data series are synchronously pipeline-transferred to the processing elements. Each data storage area of each processing element is subjected to the cyclical mode transition as shown in Fig. 6 at predetermined cycle. Note that a unit of time corresponds to a time required for calculating components of the matrix C or vector data transfer. The processing of the three data storage areas of the processing element PE1 at times 3, 4, and 5 will be described in detail. The data storage area in a data reception mode receives vector data |a₃ at time 3, and is switched to a data transmission mode at time 4. The data storage area transmits the data |a₃ to the processing element PE2. At time 5, the data storage area is switched to a data computation mode, and is used for inner product computation between the data |a₃ and vector data |b₁ input at time 1 and is held therein. On the other hand, at time 3, other two data storage areas respectively serve as a data storage area for inner product computation between vector data |a₁ and |b₁ (in the data computation mode), and a data storage area for data transmission for transmitting vector data |a₂ received at time 2 to the processing element PE2 (in the data transmission mode). At time 4, the former data storage area serves as a data storage area for receiving vector data |a₄ (in the data reception mode), and the latter data storage area serves as a data storage area for inner product computation between the vector data |a₂ and |b₁ (in the data computation mode). At time 5, the former data storage area serves to transfer vector data |a₄ to the PE2 (data transmission mode) and the latter data storage area serves to receive vector data |a₅ (data reception mode). In the above processing of the matrix multiplications, since the data storage areas can be exclusively and cyclically switched in three modes, i.e., the data reception, data transmission, and data computation modes according to the present invention, inner product computation and data transfer among processing elements can be parallelly executed in the processing elements. The overhead of a time required for data transmission among the processing elements in the array processor can be reduced, thus achieving efficient processing. The effect of this embodiment will be quantitatively evaluated. A time required for inner product computation is given by t p , a time required for transferring vector data |a i or |b j is given by t tr , and a time required for initial loading which is necessary until computation is started in the entire array processor is given by t₀, a time T required for multiplication of the (ℓ,m) matrix A and the (m,n) matrix B is represented by: T ≃ t₀ + (ℓ + n + 1) x max[t p ,t tr ] (1) where max[x,y] represents a maximum value of x and y . If t p ≧ t tr , equation (1) is rewritten as T ≃ t₀ + (ℓ + n + 1)t p , data transfer time is very short as compared to computation time, and the total time depends on only the computation time. If t p < t tr , equation (1) is rewritten as T ≃ t₀ + (ℓ + n + 1)t tr , data computation time is very short as compared to data transfer time, and the total time depends on only the data transfer time. In a means for serially executing computation and data transfer, i.e., the prior art in which a data storage area is commonly used for data transfer and data computation, and data transfer and data computation modes are executed in a time-divisional manner, a total time T′ is represented by: T′ ≃ t₀′ + (ℓ + n + 1) x (t p + t tr ) (2) From equations (1) and (2), Assuming that t₀′ and t₀ in the first terms of the denominator and numerator in equation (3) can be ignored as compared to the second terms, Therefore, from equation (4), T ≦ T', processing can be achieved by the arrangement of the present invention at higher speed than the conventional arrangement. If t p ≃ t tr , the processing speed can be increased twice that in the conventional arrangement. The control unit will be described hereinafter in detail. Fig. 7 is a block diagram of the control unit. Note that the common control unit is used in all the embodiments of the present invention. Address Counters 1, 2, and 3 respectively specify the location of data storage areas 1 ○, 2 ○, and 3 ○, and Base Address Registers 1, 2, and 3 retain data to be compared with address values in these Address Counters. The address value in the Address Register is compared with the data in the corresponding Base Address Register through a corresponding coincidence detector. Each coincidence detector generates a flag indicating a coincidence between the address values. The flag output from each coincidence detector can be defined as a flag representing whether data exchange operation is completed or not in the data storage areas for data transmission, data reception, and data computation. Each multiplexer switches flags indicating the data transmission and reception states, and sends the selected flag as a transmission state flag (SF) or a reception state flag (RF) to a Mode Control circuit. The flag indicates that the data storage area in the data transmission or reception state completes data transmission or reception. More specifically, an initial address in a data storage area of a data group to be transmitted or received is set in each Address Counter, and an final address thereof is set in the corresponding Base Address Register. The Counter increments the address each cycle data is transmitted or received. When the incremented value coincides with the value of the Base Address Register, the Counter stops the increment operation. A coincidence flag is detected, and transmission or reception is completed. The Mode Control circuit controls the modes of the respective data storage areas. A control signal MC (Mode Change Signal) is used for starting cyclical mode transition control of the data storage areas; and ST3 and ST6, control signals for respectively designating three-state cyclical mode transition control and six-state cyclical mode transition control (to be described later). Control signals P n , R n , and S n (n = 1, 2, 3) respectively indicate the data computation, data reception, and data transmission mode of the data storage area (if n = 1, 1 ○; if n = 2, 2 ○; and if n = 3 3 ○). A control signal MDF is used for six-state cyclical mode transition control. A Decoder circuit generates data read and write enable signals REN n and WEN n (n = 1, 2, 3) in accordance with the control signals indicating the mode of the individual data storage areas from the Mode Control circuit, control signals WR and RD indicating write and read operations of the data storage areas during data computation, and control signals ASWR and ASRD indicating write and read operations during data transmission/reception. Fig. 8 is a logic circuit diagram of the Mode Control circuit. BM n (n = 1, 2, 3) represents the mode of each data storage area and represents that any of P n , S n , and R n (n = 1, 2, 3) is the logical "High". Registers 11 to 16 constitute a register group for controlling mode values of the data storage areas 1 ○, 2 ○, and 3 ○. The mode of the data storage area 1 ○ is defined by the register values of the registers 11 and 14, the mode of 2 ○ is defined by the register values of the registers 12 and 15, and the mode of 3 ○ is defined by the register values of the registers 13 and 16 (for data computation mode, "11", for data reception mode, "10", and for data transmission mode, "01"). In this register group, p ○ indicates a register for holding an initial value "1", and r ○ indicates a register for holding "0" upon resetting. The registers 11 to 13 and the registers 14 to 16 serve as shift registers. Fig. 9 is a logic circuit diagram of the Decoder circuit, and Figs. 10 and 11 are timing charts of operations of the Mode Control circuit in three-state cyclical mode transition control and six-state cyclical mode transition control, respectively. In Fig. 10, the shift registers indicating the mode values of the data storage areas perform a shift operation each cycle the control signal MC is input for one machine cycle, and the signals BM n (n = 1, 2, 3) indicating the modes of the data storage areas are exclusively changed, thus realizing three-state cyclical mode transition control. In Fig. 11, the shift registers indicating the mode values of the data storage areas perform a shift operation once each cycle the control signal MC is input for two machine cycles, and the control signal MDF is set or reset each cycle the control signal of one machine cycle is input. When the control signal MDF is the logical "Low", the modes of the data storage areas are defined by the values of the signals BM n (n = 1, 2, 3). When the signal MDF is the logical "High", the mode of the data storage area of BM n = P n is defined as a data read-only mode for data computation, and the mode of the data storage area of BM n = S n is defined as a data write-only mode for data computation, so that the signal MC switches, for each machine cycle, a state wherein the two data storage areas are assigned to the read and write-only modes for data computation, and a state wherein the data storage areas are respectively assigned to the data computation, reception, and transmission modes, thereby realizing six-state cyclical mode transition control. [Embodiment 2] A case will be described wherein convolution computation is executed using a linear array processor. If a series of weighting coefficient data is given as W = {w₁, w₂,..., w k }, and a series of input data is given as X = {x₁, x₂,..., x n }, convolution computation is represented as: y i = w₁x i + w₂x i+1 + ... + w k x i+k-1 Fig. 5 shows an arrangement of the present invention for this embodiment. Each processing element has an arrangement shown in Fig. 5. In this case, data storage areas used for data reception, data transmission, and data computation modes are registers. An operation of convolution computation in a linear array processor consisting of k processing elements shown in Fig. 12 will be described in Figs. 13A and 13B in the case of k = 5 and n = 7. Each processing element has the data storage areas used for the above three modes (in this embodiment, since each data is scalar data, each data storage area can be a register), and also has a control means for controlling multiplication and addition functions, the processing modes of the data storage areas, and data exchange. Each processing element has a data storage area for input data X. This storage area is assumed to be simultaneously used for data input from the input data bus and data computation. In addition, each processing element is assumed to have a means for storing and holding intermediate computation results. The data storage registers can be exclusively and cyclically switched in data reception, data transmission, and data computation modes. The operations of the data storage registers of a processing element PE1 at times 4, 5, and 6 will be described in detail. The data storage register which receives data w₄ in the data reception mode at time 4 is switched to the data transmission mode at time 5 and transmits data w₄ to a processing element PE2. At time 6, the data storage register is switched to the data computation mode, and is used for multiplication with x₄ input at time 5 and held therein. At time 4, other two data storage registers respectively serve as a register for multiplication w₂x₂ of y₁ (in the data computation mode), and a register for transferring the data w₃ input at time 3 to the processing element PE2 (in the data transmission mode). At time 5, the former register serves as a register for receiving data w₅ in the data reception mode, and the latter register serves as a register for multiplication w₃x₃ of y₁ in the data computation mode. At time 6, the former register serves to transmit data to the processing element PE2 in the data transmission mode, and the latter register serves to receive null data in the data reception mode. The series of input data X is simultaneously transferred to all the processing elements at respective times. As described above, in convolution computation, the data reception, data transmission, and data computation processing modes of the present invention can be exclusively and cyclically switched. With the above arrangement of the data storage areas, component calculation of y i in each processing element and data transfer among processing elements can be parallelly executed, and computation of y i can be realized by the parallel pipelined processing without suffering from overhead of data transfer among the processing elements on the array processor. As the computation results, y₁, y₂, and y₃ are obtained by the processing elements PE1, PE2, and PE3 at times 7, 8, and 9, respectively. The effect of this embodiment will be quantitatively described. If a time required for receiving and transferring data w p (1 ≦ p ≦ k) is given as t tr and a time required for multiplication w p x i+p-1 and adding a calculation result and the resultant product is given as t p , a total time T required for obtaining a result y i is represented by: where t₀ is a time required for initial data loading, and max[x,y] represents a maximum value of x and y . In convolution computation of this embodiment, since data transfer among the processing elements corresponds to transfer of one scalar data, t tr < t p . Therefore, T ≃ t₀ + (n + 1) x t p (6) In a conventional technique for serially performing computation and data transfer, a total time T, is represented by: T′ ≃ t₀′ + (n + 1)(t p + t tr ) (7) From equations (6) and (7), From equation (8), T < T′, and the processing speed can be increased by the arrangement of the present invention (1 + t tr /t p ) times that of the conventional arrangement. [Embodiment 3] A case will be described wherein vector distance calculation in Dynamic Time Warping of speech recognition is executed using a linear array processor consisting of processing elements (PE) each having the arrangement shown in Fig. 5 and a means for executing the three-state cyclical mode transition control method shown in Fig. 6. The vector distance calculation (to be referred to as d-calculation hereinafter) is represented by: wherein i and j respectively indicate an ith frame of an input pattern data time-series (|u i ) to be matched and a jth frame of a reference pattern data time-series (|r j ), and k indicates the dimension of each vector data. A case will be described wherein the d-calculation (where i = 5 and j = 5) is processed using the linear array processor having five PEs. Figs. 14A, 14B and 14C show processing flows of the d-calculation executed in the PEs. Each PE has a working data storage area which can perform data exchange with a computation execution unit as well as the three data storage areas, and can receive data from an external bus. Each PE receives input pattern data from the bus, stores it in the working data storage area, and receives reference pattern data by pipelined processing using the three data storage areas. In this processing flow, a processing time required for one d-calculation is defined as a unit time, and the three data storage areas of each PE are exclusively and cyclically switched in turn of the data reception, data transmission, and data computation modes at each time. Detailed processing will be described with reference to the d-calculation of the PE3 at time t+6. At time t+6, the PE3 receives reference pattern vector data |r₅ from the PE2 in the data storage area of data reception mode, and at the same time, transmits to the PE4 reference pattern vector data |r₄ received from the PE2 at time t+5. Parallel to the data transfer among the PEs, the PE3 executes the d-calculation (d₃₃) of reference pattern vector data |r₃ received at time t+4 and input pattern vector data |u₃ received from the bus in the working data storage area at time t+2. The mode of the three data storage areas of the PE3 are exclusively switched as follows: Mode Transition of Data Storage Area 1 ○: Time t+4 Time t+5 Time t+6 Data Computation Mode (Calculation of d₃₁) Data Reception Mode (Reception of |r₄) Data Transmission Mode (Transmission of |r₄) Mode Transition of Data Storage Area 2 ○: Time t+4 Time t+5 Time t+6 Data Transmission Mode (Transmission of |r₂) Data Computation Mode (Calculation of d₃₂) Data Reception Mode (Reception of |r₅) Mode Transition of Data Storage Area 3 ○: Time t+4 Time t+5 Time t+6 Data Reception Mode (Reception of |r₃) Data Transmission Mode (Transmission of |r₃) Data Computation Mode (Calculation of d₃₃) The PEs execute the same processing at the respective times. As described above, with the three data storage areas which can be exclusively and cyclically switched to three modes, data transfer processing in each PE can be executed in parallel with data computation processing, and parallel d-calculation of Dynamic Time Warping can be achieved without suffering from overhead of data transfer. [Embodiment 4] In this embodiment, a state A for cyclically and exclusively switching three data storage areas in three modes, i.e., in data reception, data transmission, and data computation modes, and a state B for setting one data storage area in an no-operation state, and setting other two data storage areas in a data computation write-only mode and a data computation read-only mode, are alternately switched, so that the three data storage areas are selectively and cyclically switched to six states, i.e., the data computation mode (in state A), the data computation write-only mode (in state B), the data transmission mode (in state A), no-operation mode (in state B), the data reception mode (in state A), and the data computation read-only mode (in state B), thereby parallelly executing data reception, data transmission, and data computation processing. A case will be described wherein cumulative distance calculation in Dynamic Time Warping of speech recognition is executed using a linear array processor consisting of processing elements (PE) each having the arrangement shown in Fig. 5 and a means for executing the six-state cyclical mode transition control method shown in Fig. 15. The cumulative distance calculation (to be referred to as g-calculation hereinafter) is represented by where i and j respectively indicate an ith frame of an input pattern data time-series to be matched and a jth frame of a reference pattern data time-series. A case will be described wherein the g-calculation (where i = 5 and j = 5) is processed using the linear array processor having five PEs. Fig. 16A shows a processing flow of the g-calculation executed in each PE. Each PE has a working data storage area capable of data exchange with a computation execution unit as well as the three data storage areas, and a table for a distance value d i,j is stored in part of the area. In this flow, each PE receives a data group required for its g-calculation from the adjacent PE, and calculates a data group which is required for the g-calculation of the adjacent PE using the data transferred from the adjacent PE and data held in the data storage area. Then, the PE transmits the calculated data group to the adjacent PE. Each PE calculates its g and ℓ values in parallel with this data transmission. In Fig. 16A, g, ℓ : g and ℓ values as objects g -1, ℓ⁻¹ : g and ℓ values of the immediately preceding time p a = g i-2,j-1 + 2d i-1,j p b = g i-1,j-2 + 2d i,j-1 p c = g i-1,j-1 g a = p a + d i,j g b = p b + d i,j g c = p c + 2d i,j ℓ a = ℓ i-2,j-1 ℓ b = ℓ i-1,j-2 ℓ c = ℓ i-1,j-1 The data transmission or reception storage area stores data group (n j , p a , ℓ a , p c , ℓ c ), and the working data storage area stores data group (p b , ℓ b , g⁻¹, ℓ⁻¹, g a , g b , g c ), and d i,j table. Fig. 16B shows a parallel processing flow of the g-calculation in the linear array processor in accordance with the processing flow of the PEs. Each PE executes steps a to e in Fig. 16A in accordance with the processing flow in Fig. 16B. Since steps a and d of each PE correspond to steps d and a of its adjacent PE, parallel processing wherein steps a and d are corresponded to each other between the adjacent PEs can be executed in the processing of the array processor. More specifically, inter-PE data transfer can be executed in parallel with data computation. Figs. 17A, 17B, 17C, 17D and 17E show a case wherein the processing flow described above is executed by the arrangement of the present invention. Note that symbol represents a data group, and is defined as: Figs. 17A, 17B, 17C, 17D and 17E show processing flows, in which a time required for calculating one g value in PE is defined as a unit time. Detailed processing will be described the processing of calculation of g₃₃ of the PE3 at time t+4. The three data storage areas of each PE are set in two states, i.e., a state wherein the two storage areas are set in read- and write-only modes for data computation and a state wherein the three storage areas are respectively set in data transmission, data reception, and data computation modes at respective times. At time t+4, in the PE3, data |D 3 / 2 received from the PE2 at time t+3 from the read-only data storage area for data computation, is read out, transmission data |D 3 / 3 is calculated using both this readout data and the stored data in the working data storage area in the PE3, and is stored the data in the write only data storage area for data computation. Then, the three data storage areas are set in the data transmission, data reception, and data computation modes respectively, so that the calculated data |D 3 / 3 is transmitted to an adjacent PE from the data storage area in the data transmission mode (which was set in the write-only mode), and at the same time, data |D 4 / 2 required for the g-calculation at time t+5 is received in the data storage area in the data reception mode. In parallel thereto, g₃₃ and ℓ₃₃ are calculated using the data from the data storage area in the data computation mode (which was set in a read-only mode) and the data from the working data storage area, thus completing g and ℓ calculations at time t+4. Since |D 3 / 2 = (n₃, g₁₂ + 2d₂₃, g₂₂, ℓ₁₂, ℓ₂₂) and the working data storage area stores g₂₁ + 2d₃₂ and ℓ₂₁, data g₃₃ and ℓ₃₃ can be calculated from these data. At each time, the PEs execute the same processing as described above. The above processing in each PE is executed using the three data storage areas which are cyclically used in the six modes, so that data transfer processing can be executed in parallel with data computation processing. Therefore, parallel cumulative distance calculation of Dynamic Time Warp free from the overhead due to data transfer can be realized.

Claims: A data processing apparatus comprising: three data storage areas (1, 2 ,3) each for receiving data and for reading out the received data; one data input terminal (6) to receive data from an external apparatus and one data output terminal (7) to transmit data to a different external apparatus; said input terminal being connected to a first buffer register (8), wherein data from said external apparatus are input to said first buffer register through said input terminal; said output terminal being connected to a second buffer register (9), wherein data of said second buffer register are output to said different external apparatus through said output terminal; three data storage devices each, corresponding to each of said three data storage areas, having an output port to read out data and having an input port to receive data; a control unit (5) having means for controlling computation operations of a computation execution unit (4) said apparatus being characterized in that: each of said output ports of said three data storage devices is connected with first and second multiplexers; the output of said first multiplexer is connected with input of said second buffer register; the output of said second multiplexer is connected with said computation execution unit; the outputs of said first buffer register and said computation execution unit are connected with third, fourth, and fifth multiplexers; the outputs of said third, fourth, and fifth multiplexers are connected with the input ports of said three data storage areas, respectively; said control unit has means for controlling said first, second, third, fourth and fifth multiplexers to select paths of connections between said three data storage areas, said computation execution unit and said first and second buffer registers, means for controlling read and write operations of said three data storage areas, means for controlling said first and second buffers registers to latch data; said control unit controlling data input processing in which said first buffer register latches data from said external apparatus through said input terminal, one of said three data storage areas receives data from output of said first buffer register through one of said third, fourth, and fifth multiplexers, by using said control means; said control unit controlling data output processing in which said second buffer register latches data read out from one of said three data storage areas through said first multiplexer, data latched in said second buffer register are output to said different external apparatus through said output terminal, by using said control means; said control unit controlling data computation processing in which data read out from one of said three data storage areas are transferred to said computation execution unit through said second multiplexer, said computation execution unit carries out computation operations using data which are transferred from one of said three data storage areas through said second multiplexer, and one of said three data storage areas receives computation results of said computation execution unit through one of said third, fourth, fifth multiplexers from said computation execution unit, by using said control means, said control unit performing said data input processing, data output processing and data computation processing in order to initially assign said data input processing to one of said three data storage areas, and assign said data output processing and said data computation processing to the others of said three data storage areas, respectively, to carry out simultaneously data reception from said external apparatus into the data storage area of said data input processing, data transmission to said different external apparatus from the data storage area of said data output processing, and said computation execution in which the data storage area of said data computation processing supplies data for said computation execution unit and receives computation results of said computation execution from said computation execution unit; after parallel processing of said data reception, said data transmission, and said computation execution in all of said three data storage areas, said control unit switches processings assigned to each of said three data storage areas, whereby processing the data storage area formerly assigned to said data computation processing is now assigned to said data input processing, the data storage area formerly assigned to said input processing is now assigned to said data output processing, and the data storage area formerly assigned to said data output processing is now assigned to said data computation processing, to carry out simultaneously data reception from said external apparatus into the data storage area of said data input processing, data transmission to said different external apparatus from the data storage area of said data output processing, and computation execution in which the data storage area of said data computation processing supplies data for said computation execution unit and receives computation results of said computation execution from said computation execution unit; said control unit repeatedly switching said assignments after said repeated parallel processing. A control method for said data processing apparatus in claim 1, wherein a control unit (5) controlling three kinds of behavior modes, a data reception mode, a data transmission mode, and a data computation mode, for each of three data storage areas (1, 2, 3); said data reception mode allows one of said three data storage areas to receive data from an external apparatus in data flow route of an input terminal (6) to a first buffer register (8) and then to one of third, fourth, and fifth multiplexers; said data transmission mode allows one of said three data storage areas to transmit the memorized data of this data storage area to a different external apparatus in data flow route of a first multiplexer a second buffer register (9) an output terminal (7); said data computation mode allows one of said three data storage areas to supply data of this data storage area to a computation execution unit (4) through a second multiplexer and to receive computation results of said computation execution unit through one of said third, fourth, and fifth multiplexers; the behavior mode of each of said three data storage areas is circularly changed in the following steps: (1) initially, said control unit assigns said data reception mode to one of said three data storage areas, and assigns said data transmission mode and said computation mode to the others of said three data storage areas, respectively, to carry out simultaneously data reception from said external apparatus into the data storage area of said data reception mode, data transmission to said different external apparatus from the data storage area of said data transmission mode, and said computation execution in which the data storage area of said data computation mode supplies data for said computation execution unit and receives computation results of said computation execution from said computation execution unit; (2) after parallel processing of said data reception, said data transmission, and said computation execution in all of said three data storage areas, said control unit switches modes of each of said three data storage areas, in which mode of the data storage area which is in said data computation mode is switched to said data reception mode, mode of the data storage area which is in said reception mode is switched to said data transmission mode, and mode of the data storage area which is in said data transmission mode is switched to said data computation mode, to carry out simultaneously data reception from said external apparatus into the data storage area of said data reception mode, data transmission to said different external apparatus from the data storage area of said data transmission mode, and computation execution in which the data storage area of said data computation mode supplies data for said computation execution unit and receives computation results of said computation execution from said computation execution unit; (3) afterwards, said step (2) is done repeatedly. A control method for said data processing apparatus in claim 1, wherein a control unit (5) controlling six kinds of behavior modes, a data reception mode, a data transmission mode, a data computation mode with read and write functions, a data computation mode with read-only function, a data computation mode with write-only function, and a no-operation mode, for each of three data storage areas (1, 2, 3); said data reception mode allows one of said three data storage areas to receive data from said external apparatus in data flow route of an input terminal (6) to a first buffer register (8) and then to one of third, fourth, and fifth multiplexers; said data transmission mode allows one of said three data storage areas to transmit the memorized data of this data storage area to a different external apparatus in data flow route of a first multiplexer to a second buffer register (9) and then to an output terminal (7); said data computation mode with read and write function allows one of said three data storage areas to supply data of this data storage area to a computation execution unit (4) through a second multiplexer and to receive computation results of said computation execution unit through one of said third, fourth, and fifth multiplexers; said data computation mode with read-only function allows one of said three data storage areas to supply data of this data storage area to said computation execution unit through said second multiplexer; said data computation mode with write-only function allows one of said three data storage areas to receive computation results of said computation execution unit through one of said third, fourth, fifth multiplexers; said no-operation mode allows one of said three data storage areas not to effect any processing; the behavior mode of each of said three data storage areas is circularly changed in the following steps: (1) initially, said control unit assigns said data reception mode to one of said three data storage areas, and assigns said data transmisison mode and said data computation mode with read and write functions to the others of said three data storage areas, respectively, to carry out simultaneously data reception from said external apparatus into the data storage area of said data reception mode, data transmission to said different external apparatus from the data storage area of said data transmission mode, and computation execution in which the data storage area of said data computation mode with read and write functions supplies data for said computation execution unit and receives computation results of said computation execution from said computation execution unit; (2) after parallel processing of said data reception, said data transmission, and said computation execution in all of said three data storage areas, said control unit switches mode of each of said three data storage areas, in which mode of the data storage area which is in said data reception mode is switched to said data computation mode with read-only function, mode of the data storage area which is in said data computation mode with read and write functions is switched to said data computation mode with write-only function, and mode of the data storage area which is in said data transmission mode is switched to said no-operation mode, to carry out simultaneously computation execution in which the data storage area of said data computation mode with read-only function supplies data of this data storage area to said computation execution unit and data reception of computation results into the data storage area of said data computation mode with write-only function from said computation execution unit; (3) after parallel processing of data supply to said computation execution unit from the data storage area of said data computation mode with read-only function and reception of computation results of said computation execution unit into the data storage area of said computation mode with write-only function from said computation execution unit, said control unit switches mode of each of said three data storage areas, in which mode of the data storage area which is in said data computation mode with read-only function is switched to said data computation mode with read and write functions, mode of the data storage area which is in said data computation mode with write-only mode is switched to said data transmission mode, mode of the data storage area which is in said no-operation mode is switched to said data reception mode, to carry out simultaneously data reception into the data storage area of said data reception mode from said external apparatus, data transmission to said different external apparatus from the data storage area of said data transmission mode, and computation execution in which the data storage area of said computation mode with read and write functions supplies data of this data storage area to said computation execution unit and receives computation results of said computation execution from said computation execution unit; (4) afterwards, said step (2) and said step (3) are done one after the other, in the order of said step (2), said step (3), said step (2), said step (3), said step (2), and so on.

Inventors: KIMURA, TAKASHI, TAKAHASHI, JUNICHI
Applicants: NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION
Application year: 1987
Main classification: G06F15
IPC codes: G06F17, G06F15