Character string identification device with a memory comprising selectively accessible memory areas

Claim 1

A character string identification device for identifying a sequence of input characters to produce an identified code indicative of a result of identification, said character string identification device comprising: associative memory means, having memory locations for preliminarily storing a plurality of memorized characters and for deciding a best match between each of said input characters and one of said memorized characters and for producing a character match signal representative of a memory location for said one of said memorized characters, sequential processing means, coupled to said associative memory means, for sequentially processing character match signals corresponding to respective input characters to generate a string match signal, encoding means, coupled to said sequential processing means, for encoding said string match signal into an encoded signal and for producing said encoded signal as said identified code, said memory locations arranged is first through N-th memory areas, where N represents a predetermined number, said sequential processing means including first through N-th processing sections corresponding to said first through said N-th memory areas, respectively, signal producing means for producing a selection signal designating one of said first through said N-th memory areas as a specific memory area, supplying means, coupled to said first through said N-th memory areas and to said signal producing means, for supplying each of said input characters in response to said selection signal to said specific memory area to cause said specific memory area to produce said character match signal, and activating means, coupled to said first through said N-th processing sections and to said signal producing means, for activating one of said through said N-th processing sections as a particular processing section associated with said specific memory area to cause said particular processing section to process character match signals supplied from said specific memory area into said string match signal, and each of said first through said N-th processing sections further including a plurality of stages corresponding to memory locations in each of said memory areas, and each of said stages including holding means for holding a delimiter signal, representative of a delimiter of a string of said memorized characters, in each of said memory areas.