METHOD AND MEANS UTILIZING MULTIPLE PROCESSING MEANS FOR DETERMINING DEGREE OF MATCH BETWEEN TWO DATA ARRAYS

Method and apparatus are disclosed for determining a particular criterion value and an associated positional value for the degree of match between the juxtaposition of a plurality of events of a query and a plurality of corresponding events of a stored data base entry. Plural processors are utilized. Each processor includes a plurality of data stores and a temporary store for each data store. Each data store stores a group of data values. The data values are priorly formed and represent the number of event positions between the occurrence of events in the query and the occurrence of the corresponding events in the stored data base. The plural processors, working together using the plural data stores and the temporary stores, form determined data values and sum-of-distance values which are then used for deriving a criterion value and a positional value corresponding to the degree of match between the query and the data base.