Abstract: An information-retrieval system comprises a workstation having an input device and an output device. The workstation is connected to an intelligent interface which in turn is connected to a date base memory system. The interface comprises a lexical analyzer, a semantic associator, a query code generator and an output formatter. The user inputs a query as an ordered stream of characters in natural language (e.g., English or German). The lexical analyzer partitions the character stream into sections which are then compared with and matched against the contents of a look-up table held in a local memory and if a match is located, converted to a single token record for transmission to the Semantic Associator.

Abstract: A computer memory device (10) for storing identified associations between data items of a data collection comprises an array (15) of signal flow pathways (1,2,3 etc) which are respectively rendered representative of data items by an indexing component (12) and input/output circuitry (18) connected to the array (15). Controllable interconnect elements (A,B,C,D,E, etc) selectively interconnect the pathways (1,2,3 etc) in one or more pairs and effect directional control of signal flow between each interconnected pair in accordance with the identified association between the respectively represented data items of the data collection. The interconnect elements (A,B,C etc) are status controlled by signals delivered thereto over respective channels (20A,20B,20C etc) from respective control devices (22A,22B,22C etc) which are contained in a memory (17) which is externally addressable by component (11).