This paper concerns the computational aspects of the reconfigurable network model. The computational power of the model is investigated under several network topologies and assuming several variants of the model. In particular, it is shown that there are reconfigurable machines based on simple network topologies, that are capable of solving large classes of problems in constant time. These classes depend on the kinds of switches assumed for the network nodes. Reconfigurable networks are also compared with various other models of parallel computation, like PRAM's and Branching Programs. Part of this work is to be presented at the 18th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP), July 1991, Madrid. y Department of Computer Science, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel. E-mail: yosi@humus.huji.ac.il, Supported by Eshcol Fellowship. z Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, The Weizmann Institute, Rehovot 76100, Israel. E-mail: p...

This paper concerns some of the theoretical complexity aspects of the reconfigurable network model. The computational power of the model is investigated under several variants, depending on the type of switches (or switch operations) assumed by the network nodes. Computational power is evaluated by focusing on the set of problems computable in constant time in each variant. A hierarchy of such problem classes corresponding to different variants is shown to exist and is placed relative to traditional classes of complexity theory. Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, The Haifa University, Haifa, Israel. E-mail: yosi@mathcs2.haifa.ac.il y Department of Computer Science, Technische Universitat Munchen, 80290 Munchen, Germany. E-mail: lange@informatik.tu-muenchen.de z Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, The Weizmann Institute, Rehovot 76100, Israel. E-mail: peleg@wisdom.weizmann.ac.il. Supported in part by an Allon Fellowship, by a Bantrell Fellowship an...

Reconfigurable networks attract increased attention recently, as an extremely strong parallel model which is realizable in hardware. In this work we consider the basic problem of gathering information which is dispersed among the nodes of the network. We analyze the complexity of the problem on reconfigurable linear-arrays. The analysis introduces a novel criteria for the efficiency of reconfigurable network algorithms, namely the Bus-Usage. This amount measures the use of the network sub-busses by the algorithm. 1 Introduction Reconfigurable Networks (RNs) attract increased attention recently, as an extremely fast parallel model. This increased interest is due to technological developments that have made it ready for current and future implementations. The basic idea of a reconfigurable network is to enable flexible connection patterns, by allowing nodes to connect and disconnect their adjacent edges in various patterns. This yields a variety of possible topologies for the network,...