Abstract: An array of Peltier-effect thermoelectric tiles are controlled by a microprocessor so as to produce a repeatable series of temperature patterns or sequences on the skin adjacent to the area of pain. The series can be modified by selecting between one and m different pre-programmed thermal patterns or sequences by the appropriate setting of a m-toggle switch bank. The hot intensity, cold intensity and time delay between sequences can also be selected. The period between temperature changes is greater than one minute. A variety of different pain soothing sequences can be generated including checkerboard patterns, hot and cold waves, alternating left and right side temperature changes, etc.

Abstract: A multinode parallel-processing computer is made up of a plurality of innerconnected, large capacity nodes each including a reconfigurable pipeline of functional units such as Integer Arithmetic Logic Processors, Floating Point Arithmetic Processors, Special Purpose Processors, etc. The reconfigurable pipeline of each node is connected to a multiplane memory by a Memory-ALU switch NETwork (MASNET). The reconfigurable pipeline includes three (3) basic substructures formed from functional units which have been found to be sufficient to perform the bulk of all calculations. The MASNET controls the flow of signals from the memory planes to the reconfigurable pipeline and vice versa. the nodes are connectable together by an internode data router (hyperspace router) so as to form a hypercube configuration. The capability of the nodes to conditionally configure the pipeline at each tick of the clock, without requiring a pipeline flush, permits many powerful algorithms to be implemented directly.