Fully scalable parallel processing system having asynchronous SIMD processing

A array processing system, comprising:

• a plurality of processing elements interconnected as an array processor, each having a processor and a memory coupled to said processor, and wherein each of the processing elements selectively and autonomously executes an independent instruction stream on an independent multiple data stream, thereby providing for a MIMD mode;
• and
• a control processor that dispatches a single instruction stream to the plurality of processing elements to command the respective processing elements to execute respective multiple independent data streams located one per processing element, each successive instruction of said single instructions being dispatched by said control processor in response to all of said processing elements accessing an instruction immediately preceding said each successive instruction;
• wherein a first one of said processing elements which has completed execution of a multiple instruction stream in response to an instruction of said single instructions accesses and begins executing an immediately subsequent instruction of said single instructions after all other processing elements have read said instruction and before all other processing elements complete execution of respective multiple instruction streams in response to said instruction, whereby the processing elements execute the series of single instructions independently of a fixed time relationship between or among the processing elements with respect to accessing a subsequent single instruction before all processing elements have completed executing multiple instructions in response to a single instruction immediately precedent to said subsequent single instruction;
• and
• wherein both at the processing element and system level there is scalability of processing, communication and I/O.