Patent ID: 7827386

Claim:
A data driven processing method, comprising: providing, by an external host controller, a first set of instructions to a first processing unit, of a data driven processor having a plurality of processing units, the first processing unit to operate upon incoming data in accordance with the first set of instructions; configuring, by the external host controller, a data path through a mesh arrangement of data ports for transferring data between a second processing unit of the data driven processor and external memory, wherein the data path couples the second processing unit to the external memory through a memory access unit of the data driven processor, wherein the coupling of each pair of data ports of adjacent processing units is a point-to-point connection, and wherein the mesh arrangement of data ports allows data flow (a) from any one of the processing units directly to another without accessing memory and (b) from any one of the processing units to the memory access unit; and the first processing unit, in response to recognizing that the first set of instructions will require one of reading from and writing to external memory based on having processed the first set of instructions, provides addressing information to the memory access unit of the processor through a control port of the first processing unit to enable the transfer of additional data between the external memory and the second processing unit via said data path.