Associative memory including means for retrieving one of a plurality of identical stored words

Claim 1

A MEMORY COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF CELLS CONNECTED IN SERIES, MEANS FOR STORING A DISTINCT DATA SYMBOL IN A RANDOMLY LOCATED PLURALITY OF SAID CELLS INTERSPERSED AMONG CELLS STORING OTHER DATA SYMBOLS, AND MEANS FOR RETRIEVING SAID DISTINCT DATA SYMBOL FROM A SINGLE ONE OF SAID RANDOMLY LOCATED PLURALITY OF CELLS COMPRISING MEANS IN EACH CELL FOR COMPARING THE STORED DATA SYMBOL WITH A COMPARISON SIGNAL APPLIED SIMULTANEOUSLY TO EACH OF SAID CELLS, MEANS RESPONSIVE TO A MATCH IN ONE CELL FOR ACTIVATING ANOTHER CELL, MEANS FOR APPLYING A PROPAGATE SIGNAL TO A PREDETERMINED ONE OF SAID CELLS, MEANS IN EACH CELL FOR TRANSMITTING SAID PROPAGATE SIGNAL THROUGH ADJACENT INACTIVE CELLS, MEANS FOR DEACTIVATING ALL CELLS OTHER THAN THE ACTIVE CELL RECEIVING THE PROPAGATE SIGNAL, AND MEANS IN SAID REMAINING ACTIVE CELL RESPONSIVE TO THE SIMULTANEOUS APPLICATION OF A RETRIEVAL SIGNAL TO EACH OF SAID CELLS FOR READING OUT THE STORED DATA SYMBOL.