A semi-conductor chip is specified which, apart from a user circuit, contains a size comparator circuit which can be optionally used for determining the largest or smallest value of a number of values. The size comparator circuit additionally contains a delay element which can be optionally switched into circuit. In application, these size comparator circuits with a delay element can then be used for forming arbitrary trees of size comparator circuits by means of which the largest or smallest value from a large number of values is determined. <IMAGE>
