An image detection method is disclosed wherein local edge information within an image is utilized for accurately detecting lines and curves of the images. Systolic paradigms of limited fan-out on all signal paths and nearest neighbor interconnections guarantee optimally fast clock rates. A second embodiment of the invention is a fixed wavelength external cavity semiconductor laser where the chip etalon FSR is a whole number multiple of the laser cavity FSR, and a mode suppressing etalon is inserted into the laser cavity such that the mode suppressing etalon FSR is a whole number multiple of the chip etalon FSR.