Method and apparatus for representing and interrogating an index in a digital memory
First Claim
1. A method for locating and retrieving data from an index database comprising the steps of:
- storing records to be located and retrieved in an index database;
selecting at least one attribute that may be possessed by one or more records to be retrieved from the index database;
inputting said at least one attribute into a processing means;
said processing means including a processor memory and an index memory, said index memory containing a plurality of datawords located at addresses corresponding to said at least one attribute possessed by said one or more records in said index database;
determining the identity of an address in the index memory which corresponds to said at least one selected attribute;
reading a dataword from said index memory which is stored therein at the location corresponding to the address specified by said at least one selected attribute, said dataword including a plurality of binary bits with each said bit corresponding to a record in said index database; and
determining from the values of the bits in the dataword, the one or more records in said index database which possess said attributes.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method apparatus for retrieval of data from an index database is disclosed. Each address in an index memory corresponds to an attribute that may be possessed by one or more records in the index database. Index memory datawords located at each index memory address include a number of binary bits equal to the number of records in the index database. If a record possesses an attribute, the value of the bit at a position corresponding to the record'"'"'s address in that attribute'"'"'s index memory dataword will be a binary "1". Priority encoder circuitry is provided to locate the positions of each of the 1'"'"'s in the index memory datawords so that all of the records in the index database that possess an attribute can be determined. Logic circuitry is provided to combine index memory datawords logically to form new datawords that can be used to identify records that possess either all of a plurality of selected attributes, or one or more of a plurality of selected attributes. This retrieval system employs parallel hardware circuitry to increase data retrieval speed.
59 Citations
9 Claims
-
1. A method for locating and retrieving data from an index database comprising the steps of:
-
storing records to be located and retrieved in an index database; selecting at least one attribute that may be possessed by one or more records to be retrieved from the index database; inputting said at least one attribute into a processing means;
said processing means including a processor memory and an index memory, said index memory containing a plurality of datawords located at addresses corresponding to said at least one attribute possessed by said one or more records in said index database;determining the identity of an address in the index memory which corresponds to said at least one selected attribute; reading a dataword from said index memory which is stored therein at the location corresponding to the address specified by said at least one selected attribute, said dataword including a plurality of binary bits with each said bit corresponding to a record in said index database; and determining from the values of the bits in the dataword, the one or more records in said index database which possess said attributes. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
-
-
5. A data locating and retrieval system for locating and retrieving data from an index database comprising:
-
a) processor means; b) an index database interfaced to said processor means containing a plurality of records; c) at least a first match determination circuit interfaced to said processor means and including; i) an index memory containing a plurality of datawords, each said dataword being specified by an index memory address and including a plurality of binary bits, each of which correspond to an address of a record in said index database; and ii) means to determine the binary values of each of the bits of one or more selected datawords of said index memory; d) means to input one or more selected attributes to said processor means which are to be matched with records in said index database; and e) processor memory means interfaced to said processor means including; i) means for mapping each selected attribute to an address in said index memory; and ii) means for mapping each bit of the datawords in said index memory at the one or more addresses corresponding to each selected attribute to a corresponding address of each of said records in said index database; whereby, said processor means can determine the identity of any records in said index database which possess the selected attributes from the values of the bits of each corresponding index memory dataword. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9)
-
Specification