Associative memory employing nondestructive readout of binary elements

Claim 1

AN ASSOCIATIVE MEMORY CELL COMPRISING FIRST AND SECOND SWITCHING DEVICES HAVING INPUT, OUTPUT AND CONTROL CIRCUITS, A FIRST OUTPUT TERMINAL, THE INPUT CIRCUITS OF SAID SWITCHING DEVICES BEING COUPLED IN COMMON TO SAID FIRST OUTPUT TERMINAL FOR RECEIVING READ CONTROL SIGNALS, SECOND AND THIRD OUTPUT TERMINALS, INDIVIDUAL IMPEDANCE MEANS FOR COUPLING THE OUTPUT CIRCUIT OF EACH OF THE SWITCHING DEVICES TO A DIFFERENCT ONE OF SAID SECOND AND THIRD OUTPUT TERMINALS, IMPEDANCE MEANS FOR REGENERATIVELY CROSS COUPLING THE OUTPUT AND CONTROL CIRCUITS TO CAUSE THE SWITCHING DEVICES TO ALTERNATELY CONDUCT FOR DEFINING TWO STABLE STATES, A FOURTH OUTPUT TERMINAL, AN ASYMMETRICALLY CONDUCTIVE DEVICE COUPLED BETWEEN SAID FOURTH TERMINAL AND AN OUTPUT CIRCUIT FOR FORMING A PREDETERMINED OUTPUT SIGNAL INDICATIVE OF A STATE OF THE SWITCHING DEVICES IN RESPONSE TO A READ CONTROL SIGNAL APPLIED TO SAID FIRST OUTPUT TERMINAL, A FIFTH OUTPUT TERMINAL, A PAIR OF ASYMMETRICAL CONDUCTIVE ELEMENTS CONNECTED BETWEEN THE OUTPUT CIRCUITS OF THE SWITCHING DEVICES AND THE FIFTH OUTPUT TERMINAL FOR FORMING A UNIQUE OUTPUT SIGNAL INDICATIVE OF A PREDETERMINED RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE STORAGE STATE OF THE SWITCHING DEVICES AND THE STATE REPRESENTED BY SUCH INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL SOURCES.