13. A computer program product containing instructions which, when loaded into a programmable processing apparatus, implements a fuzzy inference processing apparatus or method, said instructions comprising: one or more instructions for (a) receiving one or more input values and generating an array of values each representing a membership degree of a respective input value in a pre-defined fuzzy set; one or more instructions for (b) forming a vector sum of said array of membership degree values and a rule array representing a fuzzy rule of a fuzzy rule base, said rule array comprising a set of binary values, whereby forming said vector sum places each of said membership degree values, which initially all lie in a predetermined numerical range, into one of two distinct numerical ranges, according to a corresponding binary value in said rule array; and one or more instructions for (c) processing elements of said vector sum to determine a firing strength for said fuzzy rule represented by said rule array.
13. A computer program product containing instructions which, when loaded into a programmable processing apparatus, implements a fuzzy inference processing apparatus or method, said instructions comprising: one or more instructions for (a) receiving one or more input values and generating an array of values each representing a membership degree of a respective input value in a pre-defined fuzzy set; one or more instructions for (b) forming a vector sum of said array of membership degree values and a rule array representing a fuzzy rule of a fuzzy rule base, said rule array comprising a set of binary values, whereby forming said vector sum places each of said membership degree values, which initially all lie in a predetermined numerical range, into one of two distinct numerical ranges, according to a corresponding binary value in said rule array; and one or more instructions for (c) processing elements of said vector sum to determine a firing strength for said fuzzy rule represented by said rule array. 14. The computer program product as claimed in claim 13 comprising: one or more instructions for a preliminary converting of a rule base into a binary array representation, prior to repeated performance of said method in a real-time processing application.