Content Addressable Memories
Kluwer Academic Publishers eBooks · 2005
A content addressable memory is a very useful and yet very complex array. The topology includes an embedded compare function that is spread across the bit cells in the compare array of the CAM. This feature is used to select the remainder of the data to be read or written through the addressing based on matching to this compare. Various masking schemes are possible including a ternary content addressable memory, which allows individual bit cells to either participate in a match as a “1” / “0” or be masked and not participate. CAMs, through their usefulness, will continue to grow in size and will proliferate through other semiconductor chips in the future.