Search memory incorporating non-destructive sensing

Claim 1

APPARATUS FOR COMPARING A STORED MEMORY BINARY WORD TO A TEST BINARY COMPRISING: A PLURALITY OF MAGNETIC ELEMENTS EACH COMPRISING A BISTABLE FERROMAGNETIC FILM HAVING A MAGNETIZATION AXIS AND A ROTATABLE MAGNETIZATION VECTOR WHICH IS SUBSTANTIALLY ALIGNED WITH SAID AXIS IN THE ABSENCE OF AN EXTERNAL MAGNETIC BIASING FIELD AND HAVING A PLURALITY OF STATES OF MAGNETIC STABILITY FOR STORING PARALLEL GROUPS OF BINARY WORDS IN CORRESPONDING BIT ORDER POSITIONS; A WORD SENSE LINE MAGNETICALLY COUPLED TO ALL OF SAID MAGNETIC ELEMENTS; MEANS FOR ESTABLISHING A TEST WORD COMPOSED OF A PLURALITY OF BINARY BITS; MEANS ADAPTED TO RECEIVE SIGNAL REPRESENTATIONS OF THE VALUES OF THE BITS IN SAID TEST WORD FOR APPLYING A FIRST BIASING MAGNETIC FIELD TO SAID PARALLEL GROUPS OF MEMORY ELEMENTS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE RESPECTIVE TESTT WORD BIT VALUES; AND MEANS FOR FURTHER APPLYING A SECOND MAGNETIC FIELD TO MOMENTARILY CHANGE THE MAGNETIC STATE OF THE ELEMENTS IN ONE OF SAID GROUPS WHICH DO NOT STORE BITS CORRESPONDING TO THE RESPECTIVE BITS OF THE TEST WORD; AND WORD IDENTITY DETECTING MEANS CONNECTED TO SAID SENSE LINE FOR PROVIDING INDICATIONS OF A WORD MISMATCH BY SENSING THE MOMENTARY HCANGE IN THE MAGNETIC STATE OF THE ELEMENTS.