Patent ID: 8443169

Claim:
A network of nodes organized in stages according to dimensions of a GxH matrix of nearest neighbor connected elements having connectivity within the stages according to a 1 to N adjacency of connections between elements in corresponding dimensions of the GxH matrix which includes wrap around adjacent elements, the connectivity within the stages includes connections between nodes in the same position, N a positive odd integer, and G≧N and H≧N, the network comprising: groups of A g,h nodes, each group having a different g that is the same for each A g,h node in that group, gε{0,1, . . . , G−1} and for each group, hε{0,1, . . . , H−1}, and each A g,h node operable to output a data value; groups of R g,h nodes, each group having a different g that is the same for each R g,h node in that group, gε{0,1, . . . , G−1} and for each group, hε{0,1, . . . , H−1}, each group of R g,h nodes directly coupled to a corresponding group of A g,h nodes according to a 1 to N adjacency of nodes in a first dimension, wherein each R g,h node in a group of R g,h nodes is operable to select a data value solely from directly coupled nodes A g,h−└N/2┘ , . . . , A g,h−2 , A g,h−1 , A g,h , A g,h+1 , A g,h+2 , . . . , A g,h+└N/2┘ and to output the R g,h node selected data value, wherein for a selected value of N, the A g,h−└N/ 2┘ , . . . , A g,h−2, A g,h−1 sequence of nodes has └N/2┘ nodes and for N>1 the last node is A g,h−└N/2 and the A g,h+1 , A g,h+2 , . . . , A g,h+└N/2┘ sequence of nodes has └N/2┘ nodes and for N>1 the last node is A g,h+└N/2┘ ; and groups of S g,h nodes, each group having a different g that is the same for each S g,h node in that group, gε{0,1, . . . ,G−1} and for each group, hε{0,1, . . . ,H−1 }, each group of S g,h nodes directly coupled to groups of R g,h nodes according to a 1 to N adjacency of nodes in a second dimension, wherein each S g,h node is operable to select a data value solely from directly coupled nodes R g−└N/2┘,h , . . . , R g−2,h , R g−1,h , R g,h , R g+1,h , R g+2,h , . . . , R g+└N/2┘,h and to output the S g,h node selected data value, wherein for the selected value of N, the R g−└N/2┘,h , . . . , R g−2,h , R g−1,h sequence of nodes has └N/2┘nodes and for N>1 the last node is R g−└N/2┘,h , the R g+1,h , R g+2,h , . . . , R g+└N/2┘,h sequence of nodes has └N/2┘ nodes and for N>1 the last node is R g+└N/2┘,h , and └N/2┘ is the floor of N/2 which is the largest integer less than N/2.