Comparison of wide data types

A method comprising the steps:

• performing a plurality of comparison operations in order to compare a first value and a second value, each of the first value and the second value having a length greater than N bits, and each comparison operation operating on a corresponding N bits of the first and second values;
• the plurality of comparison operations being chained to form a sequence such that each comparison operation is arranged to output an accumulated comparison result incorporating the comparison results of any previous comparison operations in the sequence, and such that for each comparison operation other than a final comparison operation in the sequence the accumulated comparison result is provided for use as an input by a next comparison operation in the sequence.

An apparatus comprising:

• processing means for performing a plurality of comparison operations in order to compare a first value and a second value, each of the first value and the second value having a length greater than N bits, and each comparison operation operating on a corresponding N bits of the first and second values;
• the plurality of comparison operations being chained to form a sequence such that each comparison operation is arranged to output an accumulated comparison result incorporating the comparison results of any previous comparison operations in the sequence, and such that for each comparison operation other than a final comparison operation in the sequence the accumulated comparison result is provided for use as an input by a next comparison operation in the sequence.