In an apparatus, a layer of powders bearing patterns is laid on a rest surface of a belt conveyor, the conveyor belt is introduced between the bottom die and the top die above a cell afforded in the bottom die, the layer of powders is unloaded into the cell by a swift withdrawal of the belt conveyor. In each sending access node, transmitters for sending information-carrying optical signals use a wavelength belonging to a group of wavelengths dedicated to the secondary ring to which this sending access node is connected. The crosspoint switch interconnects the programmable matrix element with various other processing or conditioning modules to ensure parallel processing at System Clock rates. Desensitizing thresholds and sensitizing thresholds may be used to define operating boundaries, such that desensitizing thresholds are used to control network desensitize actions which result in decreased error times and sensitizing thresholds are used to control network sensitizing actions which result in increased error times.