This paper outlines the overall architecture of a query processor for relational queries and describes the design and control of its major processing modules. The query processor consists of only four processing modules and a number of random-access memory modules. Each processing module processes tuples of relations in a bit-serial, tuple-parallel manner for each of the primitive database operations which comprise a complex relational query. The query processor is designed to be manufacturable using existing VLSI technology, and to support in a uniform manner both the numeric and nonnumeric processing requirements a high-level query language like SQL presents.