Means to read out less than all bits in a register

Claim 1

APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING DATA TRANSFER TO OR FROM SELECTED STORAGE POSITIONS OF A PREDETERMINED NUMBER OF SERIALLY SCANNED DATA STORAGE POSITIONS WHICH ARE ADDRESSED ACCORDING TO THEIR LOCATION IN THE SEQUENCE OF STORAGE POSITIONS, COMPRISING: A COUNTER, MEANS FOR SETTING SAID COUNTER IN AN INITIAL CONDITION ACCORDING TO THE ADDRESS OF AN INITIAL STORAGE POSITION, SAID COUNTER BEING ARRANGED TO COUNT SCANNED STORAGE POSITIONS FOR ALTERING THE CONDITION THEREOF FROM SAID INITIAL CONDITION, MEANS RESPONSIVE TO A CARRY SIGNAL FROM SAID COUNTER FOR INITIATING A DATA TRANSFER GATE, SAID MEANS BEING RESPONSIVE TO A SECOND CONDITION OF SAID COUNTER WHEREIN SAID COUNTER INDICATES THE NUMBER OF STORAGE POSITIONS INVOLVED IN A TRANSFER OPERATION FOR TERMINATING SAID TRANSFER GATE, AND MEANS FOR GENERATING SAID CARRY SIGNAL WHEN A NUMBER OF STORAGE POSITIONS HAVE BEEN SCANNED EQUAL TO SAID INITIAL ADDRESS LESS ONE.