SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONCURRENT AND PIPELINE PROCESSING EMPLOYING A D ATA DRIVEN NETWORK

This disclosure is directed toward a data driven network of uniform processing or function modules and local storage units which network may be readily partitioned to accommodate various concurrent operations or tasks. Data transfer is serial in nature so that data segments can be of any length. Execution by each function module is initiated by arrival of all of the required data structures, one of which contains an operator and may be stored in the associated local storage unit. The other data structure may contain operands and modifiers. Thus, a series of such operators may be distributed throughout the network to increase processing performance and throughput. A particular character set and data structure format is also disclosed.