FUZZY ASSOCIATIVE MEMORY

A "fuzzy" associative memory system, and a related method for its use, the system having a large data vector memory for the storage of a large number of vectors having multiple data fields, to be compared with a number of comparison windows defined by upper and lower limits for each data field of the vectors. Output results in the form of match indications are accumulated in an output buffer for output to a host computer, which also initiates the searches. The large data vector memory facilitates window searching and searching for the closest neighbors to a given vector. It also provides a technique for searching large numbers of windows, and for classifying unknown patterns even when pattern classes are irregular in shape.