a pattern matching system and method in which feature vectors of an input pattern to be identified are compared with a plurality of stored reference patterns in order to identify the input pattern . a number l of feature vectors from the input pattern and a feature vector from one of the reference patterns are read into a distance computation unit , under control of a pattern matching control unit . inter - vector distances are calculated and passed to an asymptotic equation computation unit , which calculates an overall dissimilarity vector for each reference pattern . because l feature vectors from the input pattern are read into the distance computation unit at a time , memory and reference pattern feature vector transfer requirements are decreased .