Patent ID: 7430634

Claim:
A data transfer apparatus that is connected to a data storing memory that stores a plurality of data as a plurality of stored data, the data transfer apparatus receiving comparison data to be compared with the stored data from an external unit, searching data corresponding to the comparison data from among the stored data, and transferring the searched stored-data to the external unit, the data transfer apparatus comprising: a comparison-data storing unit that stores the comparison data received; a control unit that generates a plurality of pieces of comparison-condition information for searching predetermined stored data from the data storing memory before the comparison data is read from the comparison-data storing unit and the stored data is read from the data storing memory, each of the pieces of comparison-condition information including a comparison-data address related to an address at which the comparison data is stored in the comparison-data storing unit and a stored-data address related to an address at which the stored data is stored in the data storing memory, the stored data being compared with the comparison data; and a transfer processing unit that transfers the searched stored-data to the external unit, the transfer processing unit including a comparison-data reading function of reading the comparison data from the comparison-data storing unit based on the comparison-data address included in the comparison-condition information; a stored-data reading function of reading the stored data from the data storing memory based on the stored-data address included in the comparison-condition information; and a stored-data searching function of searching the stored data corresponding to the comparison-condition information and the comparison data by comparing the stored data read with the comparison data read based on the comparison-condition information.