Logical circuits and memory

Claim 1

IN AN ASSOCIATIVE MEMORY OF THE KIND IN WHICH GROUPS OF DATA BITS STORED IN RANDOM ONES OF A SEQUENCE OF REGISTERS ARE IDENTIFIED BY A TAG PORTION OF EACH GROUP, AND IN WHICH THE TAG OF A GROUP WHICH IS TO BE RETRIEVED FROM MEMORY IS COMPARED WITH THE TAGS OF ONE OR MORE OF THE GROUPS STORED THEREIN, A CONTROL DEVICE FOR SELECTING THE ONE OF SAID REGISTERS FROM WHICH DATA IS TO BE RETRIEVED, COMPRISING: A VACANCY CONTROL MEANS FOR EACH OF SAID REGISTERS, EACH INCLUDING A VACANCY DESIGNATING MEANS AND AN OCCUPANCY DESIGNATING MEANS ALTERNATIVELY OPERABLE IN DEPENDENCE ON WHETHER THE CORRESPONDING REGISTER IS VACANT OR OCCUPIED, RESPECTIVELY; A TAG COMPARING MEANS FOR EACH OF SAID REGISTERS, EACH RESPONSIVE TO THE OCCUPANCY DESIGNATING MEANS OF THE CORRESPONDING REGISTER, EACH INCLUDING A MATCH RESPONSIVE MEANS AND A MISMATCH RESPONSIVE MEANS ALTERNATIVELY OPERABLE IN DEPENDENCE ON WHETHER THE TAG OF THE DESIRED GROUP AND THE TAG OF THE GROUP STORED IN THE CORRESPONDING REGISTER ARE IDENTICAL OR NOT, RESPECTIVELY; A READ-OUT MEANS FOR EACH OF SAID REGISTERS, EACH OPERABLE IN RESPONSE TO THE CORRESPONDING ONE OF SAID MATCH RESPONSIVE MEANS TO RETRIEVE DATA FROM THE CORRESPONDING REGISTER; A CONNECTION MEANS FOR EACH REGISTER SUBSEQUENT TO THE FIRST ONE IN SAID SEQUENCE, EACH CONCURRENTLY RESPONSIVE TO THE MISMATCH RESPONSIVE MEANS AND THE VACANCY DESIGNATING MEANS OF THE REGISTER ANTECEDENT THERETO IN SAID SEQUENCE TO OPERATE THE ONE OF SAID VACANCY CONTROL MEANS CORRESPONDING TO SAID SUBSEQUENT REGISTER; AND INITIATING MEANS TO START A RETRIEVAL OPERATION BY OPERATING THE VACANCY CONTROL MEANS OF THE FIRST REGISTER IN SAID SEQUENCE.