Easily schedulable horizontal computer

Abstract

A computer system employing horizontal architecture and having multiple resources of which the use must be scheduled in an optimum manner. Scheduling is reduced to a mechanical task by the use of an interconnect circuit having multi-word storage capability at each of a plurality of cross-points providing data flow paths between the computer resources. At each cross-point of the interconnect circuit, data may be written into a selected location and retrieved from a selected location. Writing may be accomplished by an insertion operation in which already stored data is shifted to vacate the location selected for writing. Likewise, reading can be accompanied by a purge operation in which already stored data is shifted into the location from which data is purged. In this manner, each cross-point can function as a time delay in a data path, to facilitate scheduling of resource usage.