Jeffery C Carter

US Patent:

51612305, Nov 3, 1992

Filed:

Jun 5, 1987

Appl. No.:

7/058475

Inventors:

Jeffery A. Carter - Manhattan Beach CA
Peggy M. Otsubo - Redondo Beach CA
Kenneth N. Gravenstede - Lawndale CA
Robert A. Grotz - Palos Verdes Estates CA

Assignee:

TRW Inc. - Redondo Beach CA

International Classification:

G06F 1500

US Classification:

395800

Abstract:

A comparison circuit having at least one processing cell in which objects defined by multiple parameters are streamed from a data base through the circuit, and compared with a similarly structured object previously stored in the cell. The object stored in the cell and objects streamed through the cell are all defined by data values indicative of maximum and minimum values of the parameters making up the objects. A match is declared when all parameters of the object stored in the cell overlap the parameter ranges of the objects streamed through the cell. With the use of multiple cells connected in series or in parallel, or in a combination of series and parallel, the processing speed of the comparison circuit is increased linearly with the number of such cells. Therefore, searching of large data bases can be performed at very high speeds and configurations of interconnected processing cells can be easily interconnected and loaded to define a number of objects of interest. Special processing features permit objects to be longer than a single cell, and permit multiple ranges of a parameter to be compared repeatedly with a single stored parameter.