a parallel computer of this invention includes a plurality of memory elements and a plurality of processing elements and each of the processing elements is connected to logically adjacent memory elements . for example , the processing element which corresponds to a logical position is connected to the memory elements which correspond to a plurality of logical positions , , and . it is preferable if each of the memory elements can be accessed from the exterior . according to this invention , efficient memory access can be made and the parallel processing can be performed at high speed without increasing the hardware amount and making the control operation complicated . further , the operation speed of the image processing can be enhanced by constructing an image memory by use of a plurality of memory elements and causing the processing element to effect the image processing in a distributed and cooperative manner .