Abstract: A neural array processor computing structure with a plurality of processing units which have orthogonal sets of neurons and communicating adder trees which provide a reverse communication path. Each processing unit has a weight storage unit. The processing units are arranged so that they are connected to the weight storage units in symmetric pairs. General processing cells share communication paths so that a reduced number of communicating adder trees is used.

Abstract: Image processing for multimedia workstations is a computationally intensive task requiring special purpose hardware to meet the high speed requirements associated with the task. One type of specialized hardware that meets the computation high speed requirements is the mesh connected computer. Such a computer becomes a massively parallel machine when an array of computers interconnected by a network are replicated in a machine. The nearest neighbor mesh computer consists of an N.times.N square array of Processor Elements(PEs) where each PE is connected to the North, South, East and West PEs only. Assuming a single wire interface between PEs, there are a total of 2N.sup.2 wires in the mesh structure.