Data path unit

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In von Neumann type computers the Data path unit (DPU) is the part of the CPU, which executes computation operations and data-stream-driven data transfers from or to the CPU. In addition to the DPU a CPU also has an instruction sequencer including the program counter. But Reconfigurable Computing (RC) models do not have an instruction sequencer nor a program counter, so that here the DPU is stand-alone. Since RC systems are data-stream-driven, data counters are used instead of a program counter. Data counters are co-located with memory blocks like e. g. Auto-sequencing memory (ASM).