1. A method of transferring data from a processing element having a plurality of processing units to a centralized processor, said method comprising the steps of: partitioning said plurality of processing units into one or more groups, and assigning each group a start time and a transfer rate; collecting data output from each group in accordance with each group's start time and transfer rate and multiplexing said data outputs into a single multiplexed data stream; transferring said multiplexed data stream to a memory input buffer; and extracting and distributing the contents of said memory input buffer to individual unit buffers, each unit buffer associated with a different processing unit.