Computing system with special purpose index registers

Claim 1

A COMPUTING SYSTEM INCLUDING AN ADDRESSABLE MEMORY, AN INDEX REGISTER HAVING A PLURALITY OF BISTABLE ELEMENTS ARRANGED FROM A HIGHEST ORDER BISTABLE ELEMENT TO A LOWEST ORDER BISTABLE ELEMENT, EACH OF SAID BISTABLE ELEMENTS HAVING A ONE STATE AND A ZERO STATE, A FIRST REGISTER FOR STORING A PARTICULAR BINARY WORD, MEANS FOR INTERROGATING MEMORY LOCATIONS DETERMINED BY THE ADDRESS IN SAID INDEX REGISTER, COMPARISON MEANS FOR COMPARING THE CONTENTS OF INTERROGATED MEMORY LOCATIONS TO THE PARTICULAR WORD IN SAID FIRST REGISTER, AND FOR INDICATING WHETHER THE BINARY VALUE OF THE CONTENTS OF THE INTERROGATED LOCATION IS EQUAL, HIGHER OR LOWER THAN THE CONTENTS OF SAID FIRST REGISTER, MEANS OPERATIVE IN RESPONSE TO SAID COMPARISON MEANS IF THE CONTENTS OF SAID INTERROGATED LOCATION IS LOWER THAN THE CONTENTS OF SAID FIRST REGISTER, FOR CHANGING THE STATE OF THE BISTABLE ELEMENT IN SAID INDEX REGISTER ASSOCIATED WITH THE POSITION WHICH IS ONE ORDER LOWER THAN THE LOWEST ORDER POSITION WHICH IS IN THE ONE STATE, MEANS INCLUDING IN PART SAID ABOVE-MENTIONED MEANS, OPERATIVE IN RESPONSE TO SAID COMPARISON MEANS IF THE CONTENTS OF SAID INTERROGATED LOCATION IS HIGHER THAN THE CONTENTS OF SAID FIRST REGISTER FOR CHANGING THE STATE OF THE BISTABLE ELEMENT IN SAID REGISTER ASSOCIATED WITH THE LOWEST ORDER POSITION WHICH IS IN THE ONE STATE AND FOR CHANGING THE STATE OF THE BISTABLE ELEMENT ASSOCIATED WITH THE NEXT LOWER ORDER POSITION, WHEREBY SAID MEMORY LOCATIONS ARE INTERROGATED IN A BINARY SEARCH PATTERN.