Translating data flow to synchronous block diagrams

Abstract

We propose a method to automatically transform synchronous data flow diagrams into synchronous block diagrams. The idea is to use triggers, a mechanism that allows a block to be fired only at selected times. We discuss how to extend the transformation to also cover dynamic data flow diagrams where the number of tokens produced and consumed by blocks is variable. Our method allows widespread tools such as Simulink which are based on the synchronous block diagram model to be used for data flow diagrams as well.