Editing Dataflow architecture (section)

=== Instructions ===
An instruction, along with its required data operands, is transmitted to an execution unit as a packet, also called an ''instruction token''. Similarly, output data is transmitted back to the CAM as a ''data token''. The packetization of instructions and results allows for parallel execution of ready instructions on a large scale. 

Dataflow networks deliver the instruction tokens to the execution units and return the data tokens to the CAM. In contrast to the conventional [[von Neumann architecture]], data tokens are not permanently stored in memory, rather they are transient messages that only exist when in transit to the instruction storage.