Patent ID: 6889310

Claim:
A data-flow and context-flow data processing system comprising a plurality of data driven cores capable of switching between a plurality of contexts, wherein the plurality of data driven cores comprises a plurality of distributed multi-context storage units each capable of storing a plurality of context parameters corresponding to the plurality of contexts, each multi-context storage unit comprising: a) a context register bank comprising a plurality of context parameter registers for storing the plurality of context parameters, each context parameter register storing a parameter for one of the contexts, the plurality of context parameter registers having a corresponding plurality of inputs connected to an input connection, and a corresponding plurality of outputs; and a multiplexer having a plurality of multiplexer inputs each connected to a corresponding one of the plurality of context parameter register outputs, for selecting a current context parameter set for transmission to a multiplexer output; b) a context identification register connected to the context register bank, for storing a current context identification token identifying a current context for the context register bank, wherein the context identification register is connected to a select line of the multiplexer, for controlling the multiplexer to select the current context parameter set for transmission; and the context identification register is connected to a load enable line of each of the context parameter registers, for enabling an updating of a current context parameter set in a corresponding context parameter register; and c) logic connected to the multiplexer output for receiving the current context parameter set and processing a set of data tokens according to the current context parameter set, connected to the input connection of the context parameter registers for providing updated context parameter sets to the context parameter registers, and connected to the context identification register for propagating the current context identification token through the multi-context storage unit.