Within-limits comparator

Claim 1

APPARATUS FOR COMPARING AN EXTERNAL BINARY WORD TO A PLURALITY OF OTHER BINARY WORDS, COMPRISING: A PLURALITY OF MEMORY STORAGE REGISTERS EACH CAPABLE OF STORING PRESELECTED DIGITS OF NUMBERS IN DIGIT ORDER STAGES, EVERY TWO MEMORY REGISTERS CONSTITUTING A REGISTER PAIR FOR STORING NUMBERS DEFINING UPPER AND LOWER NUMERICAL LIMITS; EACH STAGE WHICH STORES SAID PRESELECTED DIGITS COMPRISING A PAIR OF STORAGE ELEMENTS RESPECTIVELY STORING SIGNAL REPRESENTATIONS OF THE TRUE AND COMPLEMENTARY VALUE OF THE STORED DIGIT; AN EXTERNAL STORAGE REGISTER FOR CONTAINING A TEST NUMBER, EACH DIGIT ORDER STAGE OF SAID EXTERNAL REGISTER INCLUDING MEANS FOR DEVELOPING A SIGNAL REPRESENTATION OF THE VALUE OF THE DIGIT STORED THEREIN; MEANS FOR APPLYING SAID DEVELOPED SIGNAL REPRESENTATION OF EACH EXTERNAL REGISTER STAGE TO THE CORRESPONDING DIGIT ORDER STAGES OF SAID MEMORY STORAGE REGISTERS FOR EFFECTING AT LEAST A MOMENTARY CHANGE IN THE STORED SIGNAL REPRESENTATION IN THOSE STAGES WHICH STORE SAID PRESELECTED DIGITS WHEN THE STORED DIGIT ORDER VALUE IS NOT EQUAL TO THE CORRESPONDING TEST NUMBER DIGIT ORDER VALUE; AND MEANS COUPLED TO EACH REGISTER PAIR FOR SENSING CHANGE IN BOTH REGISTERS OF THE RESPECTIVE PAIRS RESULTING FROM SAID APPLIED SIGNALS.