Stream (computing)

Stream (computing)

In computing, the term stream is used in a number of ways, in all cases referring to a succession of data elements made available over time.

*On Unix and related systems based on the C programming language, a stream is a source or sink of data, usually individual bytes or characters. Streams are an abstraction used when reading or writing files, or communicating over network sockets. The standard streams are three streams made available to all programs.
*Pipelines can also be understood as streams as well as any unlimited (non-packaged) information that is inserted by a device.
*In the Scheme programming language and some others, a stream is a lazily evaluated or "delayed" sequence of data elements. A stream can be used similarly to a list, but later elements are only calculated when needed. Streams can therefore represent infinite sequences and series. [ [http://srfi.schemers.org/srfi-40/srfi-40.html SRFI 40: A Library of Streams ] ]
*Stream processing — in parallel processing, especially in graphic processing, the term stream is applied to hardware as well as software. There it defines the quasi-continuous flow of data which is processed in a dataflow programming language as soon as the program state meets the starting condition of the stream. [ [http://www.east.isi.edu/~crago/hidisc/ HiDISC - Hierarchical Decoupled Instruction Stream Computer] .]
*Filesystems can store multiple named independent streams against a single filename. There is one main stream which makes up the normal file data. Additional streams can be used to store icons, summary and indexing information, zone information (i.e., where the file was downloaded from) etc. [ [http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/fileio/fs/file_streams.asp at MSDN] .]

ee also

*Bit stream
*Byte stream
*Data stream
*Flow (computer networking)
*Streaming media

References

External links

* [http://www.research.att.com/~suresh/papers/mpds/mpds.pdf The GPU as a stream computer]
* [http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=796530 An Approximate L1-Difference Algorithm for Massive Data Streams, 1995 Feigenbaum et al.]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Stream computing — Лого FireStream AMD FireStream (ранее как ATI FireStream и AMD Stream Processor[1]) представляет собой потоковый процессор, разработанный компанией ATI. FireStream  технология ATI. Областями применения FireStream являются приложения,… …   Википедия

  • Stream-Prozessor — Als Streamprozessor wird eine spezielle Art des Koprozessors bezeichnet und gleichzeitig auch eine kleine skalare Recheneinheit, die in solchen Koprozessoren auftreten kann. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Streamprozessor als Koprozessor 1.1 Geschichtliche… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Stream (disambiguation) — A stream is a moving body of water, such as a creek or a river.Stream may also refer to:* Stream (computing), succession of data elements supplied over time * Streams (networking API), a computer programming interface for implementing network… …   Wikipedia

  • Stream recorder — Stream recorder, also called a stream ripper, is a computer program capable of saving a data stream – particularly streaming media such as encoded music or video – to a file, instead of playing it right away. The process is sometimes referred to… …   Wikipedia

  • Stream X-Machine — The Stream X machine (SXM) is a model of computation introduced by Gilbert Laycock in his 1993 PhD thesis, The Theory and Practice of Specification Based Software Testing .Gilbert Laycock (1993) The Theory and Practice of Specification Based… …   Wikipedia

  • Stream Control Transmission Protocol — In computer networking, the Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) is a Transport Layer protocol, serving in a similar role as the popular protocols TCP and UDP. Indeed, it provides some of the same service features of both, ensuring… …   Wikipedia

  • Stream Processors, Inc — Infobox Company company name = Stream Processors Incorporated (SPI) company company type=Private foundation = 2004 location=455 DeGuigne Drive Sunnyvale, California flagicon|USA USA key people =Bill Dally, Co Founder and Chairman Chip Stearns,… …   Wikipedia

  • Byte stream — In computer science, a byte stream is a bit stream, in which data bits are grouped into units, called bytes. In computer networking the term octet stream is sometimes used to refer to the same thing; it emphasizes the use of bytes having the… …   Wikipedia

  • History of computing hardware — Computing hardware is a platform for information processing (block diagram) The history of computing hardware is the record of the ongoing effort to make computer hardware faster, cheaper, and capable of storing more data. Computing hardware… …   Wikipedia

  • Reconfigurable computing — is a computer architecture combining some of the flexibility of software with the high performance of hardware by processing with very flexible high speed computing fabrics like field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). The principal difference… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”