Handling of multiple matches and fencing in memories

Claim 1

IN A DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM A MULTIPLE WORD DATA MEMORY HAVING N ROWS AND M COLUMNS, A FIRST REGISTER HAVING N ROWS AND M COLUMNS OF REGISTER ELEMENTS CORRESPONDING TO THE N ROWS AND M COLUMNS OF SAID MEMORY, ONE ELEMENT CORRESPONDING TO EACH WORD OF SAID MEMORY WITH SELECTED ONES OF SAID ELEMENTS SET TO A GIVEN STATE, A SECOND REGISTER HAVING M STAGES CORRESPONDING TO THE M COLUMNS OF SAID FIRST REGISTER, A THIRD REGISTER HAVING N STAGES CORRESPONDING TO THE N ROWS OF SAID FIRST REGISTER, A FIRST SKIPPING SHIFT REGISTER HAVING M STAGES CORRESPONDING TO THE M STAGES OF SAID SECOND REGISTER, OPERABLE IN RESPONSE TO THE SETTING OF STAGES OF SAID SECONE REGISTER FOR SETTING CORRESPONDING STAGES OF SAID FIRST SKIPPING SHIFT REGISTER, AND OPERABLE IN RESPONSE TO SUCCESSIVE INTERROGATION INPUTS TO PROVIDE OUTPUTS SUCCESSIVELY FROM SET STAGES THEREOF, A SECOND SKIPPING SHIFT REGISTER HAVING N STAGES CORRESPONDING TO THE N STAGES OF SAID THIRD REGISTER, OPERABLE IN RESPONSE TO THE SETTING OF STAGES OF SAID THIRD REGISTER FOR SETTING CORRESPONDING STAGES OF SAID SEC-