Patent ID: 7493469

Claim:
An apparatus for evaluating a performance of a data driven processing unit that includes a firing control portion for detecting and outputting an executable packet and a program storage portion for storing an execution program and transfers packets according to an asynchronous pipeline transfer control, comprising: an entrancer for entering an execution program in a flow graph format and entering information defining packet transfer rates, respectively, associated with an input arc and an output arc including in said execution program; an extractor and comparator for extracting the packet transfer rates defined for the input and output arcs included in the flow graph entered by the entrancer together with the number of nodes connected to the respective arcs, and comparing, in magnitude, a larger one of an input packet flow rate to said firing control portion and an output packet flow rate from said program storage portion with a pre-set critical packet transfer rate of the packet transfer rates operable by said data driven processing unit, said input packet transfer rate indicating a total transfer rate of the input packets to the firing control portion and being calculated based on transfer rate information defined on the nodes connected to the input arcs and on the number of the nodes connected to the input arcs, and said output packet transfer rate indicating a total transfer rate of the packets from the program storage portion and being calculated based on the packet transfer rates defined on the nodes connected to the output arcs and on the number of the nodes connected to the output arcs; and an evaluator for evaluating whether an input data rate to said data driven processing device described by said flow graph causes an overflow of the packet in the pipeline, based on information indicating a result of magnitude comparison by said extractor and comparator.