INFORMATION PROCESSING

An information processing system includes: a first data pool containing information in the form of data items; a plurality of processing elements disposed within the first data pool for processing data items; and a system controller arranged to control the processing elements to take selectively at least one data item from a plurality of data items in the first data pool of the processing elements is arranged to perform, autonomously and asynchronously, a respective operation on its selected at least one data item and produce a resultant data item, and to place the resultant data item into the first data pool. In a preferred embodiment, a second data pool is separated from the first data pool by a boundary and a transfer mechanism governs transfer of data items between the data pools. Input information is put into the second data pool by a user, and after the system has completed processing, output data is available in the second data pool, having been transferred from the first data pool under control of the transfer mechanism.