An Iteratively Structured General-Purpose Digital Computer

Abstract

A general-purpose synchronous stored-program digital computer is described. The computer is composed solely of many small, identically structured sequential machines, each machine having fewer than 2¹¹ states. The one-dimensional iterative array of sequential machines, or cells, which constitutes this computer is similar to the distributed logic associative memory originally proposed by Lee. A significant difference in the machine's structure, however, arises from the fact that instructions are stored within, and are under the control of, other cells, rather than a central processing unit. No specific area of this machine acts solely as a memory, an arithmetic unit, or a control unit, but rather, one or more cells within the iterative array perform all of the above tasks.