Associative memory with variable word length capacity

Claim 1

AN ASSOCIATIVE MEMORY SYSTEM COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF MEMORY CELLS ARRANGED IN ROWS AND COLUMNS FOR STORING BINARY CODED INFORMATION, THE BINARY BITS OF THE SAME BINARY ORDER BEING ARRANGED IN THE SAME COLUMN AND THE BINARY BITS COMPRISING A CHARACTER BEING ARRANGED IN THE SAME ROW, EACH OF SAID MEMORY CELLS INCLUDING INPUT MEANS FOR RECEIVING BINARY CODED SIGNALS TO BE ASSOCIATIVELY COMPARED WITH THE SIGNALS STORED IN THE MEMORY CELLS AND BEING ADAPTED TO PROVIDE AN OUTPUT INDICATION OF THE BINARY STATE OF THE CELL UPON BEING ASSOCIATIVELY INTERROGATED, A COMPARISON REGISTER COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF STORAGE CELLS FOR STORING BINARY CODED CHARACTERS TO BE ASSOCIATIVELY COMPARED WITH THE CHARACTERS STORED IN THE MEMORY CELLS, THE COMPARISON CELLS STORING BITS OF THE SAME BINARY ORDER BEING ARRANGED IN THE SAME COLUMN WITH THE CORRESPONDING MEMORY CELLS AND BEING CONNECTED IN PARALLEL CIRCUIT RELATIONSHIP WITH THE INPUT MEANS FOR SAID CORRESPONDING MEMORY CELLS, INDIVIDUAL STORAGE MEANS FOR EACH ROW OF MEMORY CELLS CONNECTED TO BE RESPONSIVE TO THE OUTPUT INDICATIONS OF THE MEMORY CELLS OF THE ROW COMPRISING A CHARACTER FOR STORING A SIGNAL INDICATIVE OF A MATCHING OR MISMATCHING CHARACTER, INDIVIDUAL CONTROL MEANS FOR EACH ROW OF MEMORY CELLS CONNECTED TO BE RESPONSIVE TO THE MATCHING OUTPUT INDICATIONS FROM THE INDIVIDUAL STORAGE MEANS HAVING A PRESELECTED PHYSICAL LOCATION AND A CONTROL SIGNAL SPECIFYING THE PHYSICAL LOCATION OF THE CHARACTER TO UNDERGO COMPARISON RELATIVE TO THE LOCATION OF A CHARACTER STORED IN MEMORY AND WHOSE LOCATION IS STORED BY THE INDIVIDUAL STORAGE MEANS, AND A CONTROL SIGNAL SOURCE FOR SPECIFYING THE DESIRED PHYSICAL LOCATION OF A CHARACTER TO BE COMPARED RELATIVE TO A CHARACTER STORED IN MEMORY AND CONNECTED TO EACH OF SAID INDIVIDUAL CONTROL MEANS, SAID INDIVIDUAL CONTROL MEANS BEING CONNECTED TO SAID STORAGE MEANS FOR THE CORRESPONDING ROW FOR DELIVERING THERETO A SIGNAL INDICATIVE OF A MATCH OR MISMATCH RELATIVE TO THE SPECIFIED PHYSICAL LOCATION IN COMBINATION WITH THE OUTPUT SIGNALS FROM SAID MEMORY CELLS.