<s>
A	O
datapath	B-General_Concept
is	O
a	O
collection	O
of	O
functional	B-General_Concept
units	I-General_Concept
such	O
as	O
arithmetic	B-General_Concept
logic	I-General_Concept
units	I-General_Concept
(	O
ALUs	O
)	O
or	O
multipliers	O
that	O
perform	O
data	O
processing	O
operations	O
,	O
registers	O
,	O
and	O
buses	B-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
Along	O
with	O
the	O
control	B-General_Concept
unit	I-General_Concept
it	O
composes	O
the	O
central	B-General_Concept
processing	I-General_Concept
unit	I-General_Concept
(	O
CPU	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
larger	O
datapath	B-General_Concept
can	O
be	O
made	O
by	O
joining	O
more	O
than	O
one	O
datapaths	B-General_Concept
using	O
multiplexers	B-Protocol
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
simplest	O
design	O
for	O
a	O
CPU	O
uses	O
one	O
common	O
internal	B-General_Concept
bus	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
During	O
the	O
late	O
1990s	O
,	O
there	O
was	O
growing	O
research	O
in	O
the	O
area	O
of	O
reconfigurable	B-Architecture
datapaths	B-General_Concept
—	O
datapaths	B-General_Concept
that	O
may	O
be	O
re-purposed	O
at	O
run-time	O
using	O
programmable	B-Architecture
fabric	I-Architecture
—	O
as	O
such	O
designs	O
may	O
allow	O
for	O
more	O
efficient	O
processing	O
as	O
well	O
as	O
substantial	O
power	O
savings	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
finite-state	B-Architecture
machine	I-Architecture
with	O
datapath	B-General_Concept
(	O
FSMD	O
)	O
is	O
a	O
mathematical	O
abstraction	O
which	O
combines	O
a	O
finite-state	B-Architecture
machine	I-Architecture
,	O
which	O
controls	O
the	O
program	O
flow	O
,	O
with	O
a	O
datapath	B-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
can	O
be	O
used	O
to	O
design	O
digital	O
logic	O
or	O
computer	B-Application
programs	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
FSMD	O
level	O
of	O
abstraction	O
is	O
often	O
referred	O
to	O
as	O
the	O
register-transfer	O
level	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
An	O
FSMD	O
is	O
equivalent	O
to	O
a	O
Turing	B-Architecture
machine	I-Architecture
in	O
expressiveness	O
.	O
</s>
