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+# Executor Design Doc
+
+## Motivation
+
+We use executor to do the runtime evaluation of a `ProgramDesc`.
+
+## Overview
+
+An executor takes a `ProgramDesc`, a `block_id` and a `Scope`.  The `ProgramDesc` is a list of blocks and each block contains the protobuf definition of all the parameters and operators. The `block_id` specifies the entrance block. And the `Scope` is the container of all the variable instance, which is persistent throughout different runs.
+
+### What does executor do?
+
+It evaluates all the operators in the `block_id`th block of a `ProgramDesc`.
+
+### What does executor NOT do?
+
+It does not do runtime optimization, meaning intelligently parse the dependency of each op a choose which one to be run and in which order they should be run.
+
+It does not do graph partitioning, meaning dividing the `ProgramDesc` into several small pieces and executing them on different devices.
+
+## Implementation
+
+`Executor` evaluates a `ProgramDesc`. Essentially, it instantiates Variables and Operators, then run all the operators in sequence. [[code]](https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/Paddle/blob/develop/paddle/framework/executor.cc)