Memory Hardware for High Speed Job Selection
Carl H. Smith, Larry D. Wittie · IEEE Transactions on Computers · 1976
The discriminating content addressable memory (DCAM) is a modified content addressable memory (CAM). After the ``similar to'' search performed by the CAM, the modified memory searches in parallel for the highest value in a particular field across all words of the memory. Applications of DCAM can greatly speed up queue searches and scheduling processes in operating systems. Worst case DCAM query time for 1000 words is 2 μs. The number of extra gates required by a DCAM increases linearly with memory size.