AbstractIn this paper cellular array processors composed of weakly Coulomb coupled molecules are studied. Equivalent circuits for molecules performing optically induced electron and proton transfer are presented, and pulse‐driven computing architectures are proposed. The polymer‐like molecular array is processing signals if it is subjected to a sequence of electromagnetic pulses of well‐defined frequency, envelope and length. Programming is accomplished by selecting proper sequence of pulses. Universality of the proposed architecture for computing is demonstrated. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.