Three-dimensional storage system wherein all storage positions are selectably accessible. An information storage system is provided having conductor paths arranged in three spatial directions. The electrically conductive junctions formed at each intersection of three mutually perpendicular conductor paths provide the respective storage positions. All conductor path systems which terminate in a common column at one exterior surface of the system and all conductor paths terminating in a common row each have a single common selecting line and two of these mutually perpendicular selecting lines respectively form an electronic gate which acts as a switch between the conductor path ends and the storage system. All ends of the conductor paths in the same plane lie at a one constant potential and the ends of the conductor paths in other planes lie at a different constant potential.
Improved parallel-processor computer systems and improved data transfer systems incorporating novel networks for inter-machine communication. In a first type of communication system, tree wiring is employed in which the maximum number of outgoing inter-machine communication channels required for any machine of a set of data handling machines to communicate with any other machine of the set is equal to the maximum number of such channels required for communication between a root machine of the set and a machine of the set that is most distant therefrom. Optimum numbers of outgoing inter-machine communication channels for large sets are disclosed. In a second type of communication system, plateau distributed logarithmic wiring is employed. The machines are arranged in multi-dimensional arrays, with each array having sub-arrays and with each machine of each sub-array connected to the other machines of that sub-array and to the corresponding machine of each of the other sub-arrays for each of the dimensional directions. Optimum array side lengths are disclosed.
