Synchronous processor with simultaneous instruction processing and data transfer

A parallel data processing system comprising:

• an array of slave processors which simultaneously process respective data streams, each slave processor of the array comprising a multibit computational element having local memory, an external data memory which stores data to be transferred to and processed by the computational element, an input/output (I/O) register for data being transferred between the slave memory and a system memory, and a communications register for data being transferred between the external data memory and another slave processor of the array, each slave processor allowing for simultaneous processing of instructions by the computational element and transfer of data from the external data memory to the I/O register and to the communications register;
• an array master processor which processes an operational set of instructions and broadcasts a single instruction stream to the slave processors of the array for parallel processing of data;
• a communication master processor which processes a communications set of instructions to control transfers of data between slave processors of the array;
• an I/O processor which processes an I/O set of instructions to control transfer of data between slave processors of the array and the system memory;
• and
• a data memory controller responsive to simultaneous requests from the array master processor, the communications master processor and the I/O processor for arbitrating said requests and initiating control signals for said communications register, said I/O register and said external data memory to control addressing of the external data memory of each slave processor of the array in transfers within each slave processor between the external data memory and each of the computational element, I/O register and communications register;
• the array master processor, the communications master processor and the I/O processor processing the computational, communications and I/O sets of instructions in parallel for simultaneous transfers of instructions and data to and from and between the slave processors.