Associative parallel processing for the fast Fourier transform

An associative memory is proposed as a parallel processing unit for the fast Fourier transform; such a processing unit is well suited to implementation in large-scale integrated circuit technologies. Formulas are derived for the number of memory operations required to execute the algorithm and are tabulated for a range of the number of data points being transformed. It is shown that a 1024 word by 64 bit memory with an operation time of 100 ns could execute a 1024 point transform in 8.4 ms.