each of the processor controllers 110 112 114 and 116 and the computers 180 and 181 communicates with one or more of the mass storage devices 140 142 and 144 by way of the storage area network 162 to store results of data processing operations for example the processor controller 110 may store results of operations executed by the processor array 102 in at least one of the mass storage devices 140 142 and 144 similarly the processor controllers 112 114 and 116 may store results of operations executed by the processor arrays 106 104 and 108 respectively in the mass storage devices 140 142 and 144 it is noted that a mass storage medium may alternatively be included in at least one of the processor controllers 110 112 114 and 116 or the computers 180 and 181 in this alternative embodiment the storage area network 162 and the mass storage devices 140 142 and 144 may be omitted from the simd array architecture 100 the storage area network 162 supports any suitable protocol and communication interface such as the small computer system interface scsi protocol over fc like the system area network 160 the storage area network 162 supports a vi in an alternative embodiment moreover the mass storage devices 140 142 and 144 may be magnetic tapes disks optical disks redundant arrays of inexpensive disks.