This paper discusses the design of a switch for high-speed computer networking at gigabit rates. We present the Pulsar switch, a non-blocking design based on a high-spin-rate, port-dedicated, word-parallel, shift-register ring. Several design alternatives address the problem of Head-Of-Line blocking. In contrast to Batcher-Banyan switches, access to the ring is asynchronous which facilitates low delay and arbitrary packet length. The switch can support ATM cells simultaneously with packets sized for applications such as single characters, memory words, disk blocks, memory pages, or video images. Pulsar can be used as a high-throughput computer backplane replacement. The design can be implemented with existing high-speed circuit technology.