Tree priority circuit

Claim 1

A TREE PRIORITY CIRCUIT COMPRISING: A PLURALITY OF TREE PRIORITY CIRCUIT MODULES ARRANGED IN A TREE CONFIGURATION HAVING A PLURALITY OF LEVELS INCLUDING A FIRST LEVEL AND AT LEAST ONE ADDITIONAL LEVEL, EACH LEVEL HAVING SIGNIFICANTLY FEWER MODULES THAN THE PREVIOUS LEVEL, ALL MODULES BEING IDENTICAL, EACH SAID MODULE COMPRISING A MODULE PRIORITY GOAHEAD SIGNAL INPUT TERMINAL, A PLURALITY OF INDIVIDUALLY RANKED PRIORITY DEMAND INPUT TERMINALS AND GO-AHEAD SIGNAL OUTPUT TERMINALS; A SOURCE OF PRIORITY DEMAND SIGNALS WHICH MAY BE CHARACTERIZED AS HAVING POSITIONS IN A HIERARCHY OF RANK; MEANS CONNECTING SAID SOURCE OF PRIORITY DEMAND SIGNALS TO SAID PRIORITY DEMAND INPUT TERMINALS OF THE MODULES FORMING SIAD FIRST LEVEL; MEANS CONNECTED TO ALL OF SAID PRIORITY DEMAND SIGNAL INPUT TERMINALS FOR PROVIDING AT A MODULE PRIORITY DEMAND SIGNAL OUTPUT TERMINAL AN OUTPUT SIGNAL WHENEVER ANY ONE OF SAID PRIORITY DEMAND SIGNALS IS PRESENT; MEAND CONNECTED TO SAID PRIORITY DEMAND SIGNAL INPUT TERMINALS OF SIAD MODULE AND TO SAID MODULE PRIORITY GO-AHEAD SIGNAL TERMINAL OF SAID MODULE FOR PROVIDING AN OUTPUT AT A SELECTED ONE OF SAID GO-AHEAD SIGNAL TERMINALS RELATED TO THE HIGHEST RANKED PRIORITY DEMAND SIGNAL AVAILABLE.