High speed comparator

Claim 1

A DIGITAL COMPARATOR FOR SIMULTANEOUSLY COMPARING A BINARY INPUT NUMBER AGAINST TWO OTHER BINARY NUMBERS OF THE SAME LENGTH, SAID COMPARISON STARTING FROM THE MOST SIGNIFICANT BIT OF THE BINARY NUMBERS AND PROGRESSING TOWARD THE LEAST SIGNIFICANT BIT, COMPRISING A SEQUENTIAL SYSTEM OF NOR GATES STAGES, EACH OF SAID STAGES COMPRISING A MINIMUM OF EIGHT LOGIC ELEMENTS WHICH ARE SUBSTANTIALLY SYMMETRICALY DIVIDED BETWEEN A HIGH LIMIT CHANNEL AND A LOW LIMIT CHANNEL, EACH CHANNEL HAVING INPUT MEANS FOR EACH STAGE IN THE FORM OF A HIGH LIMIT REGISTER AND A LOW LIMIT REGISTER, SO THAT THE COMPARISON OF A DATA NUMBER WITH THE UPPER AND LOWER LIMITS IS OBSERVED BY EACH STAGE AND ESTABLISHED IN THE DECREASING ORDER OF BINARY SIGNIFICANCE, A DATA REGISTER FOR INSERTING INTO EACH STAGE THE APPROPRIATE BIT OF A DATA INPUT NUMBER SO THAT WITH LIMIT OF THE INPUT BIT OF EACH STAGE MAY BE MADE WITH LIMIT BITS OF THE SAME SIGNIFICANCE INSERTED IN THE LIMIT REGISTERS, INDICATING MEANS FOR EACH CHANNEL CONNECTED TO THE OUTPUTS OF EACH STAGE OF INDICATING WHETHER OR NOT A BINARY INPUT NUMBER IS HIGHER THAN THE UPPER LIMIT OR LOWER THAN THE LOWER LIMIT, AND ADDITIONAL INDICATING MEANS CONNECTED TO THE AFORMENTIONED INDICATING MEANS FOR INDICATING WHETHER A GIVEN BINARY INPUT NUMBER IS BETWEEN THE LIMIT NUMBERS, AND MEANS CONNECTED SO AS TO ACTIVATE APPROPRIATE INDICATING MEANS AS OF THE TIME THAT ANY STAGE ENCOUNTERS THE BIT OF A BINARY INTPUT NUMBER THAT EXCEEDS THE LIMITS OF THAT STAGE.