Patent ID: 6026467
Filing Date: 2000-02-15
Classification: G06F,H04L,H04Q

Abstract:
A content-addressable memory (CAM) comprising:a first memory;a microprocessor connected to the first memory and having an internal memory management unit for translating virtual memory addresses into physical memory addresses that includes a translation buffer in the form of an associative second memory having a plurality of entries, each entry for indicating a corresponding portion of the physical memory and having a corresponding tag for indicating a corresponding portion of the virtual memory; andthe microprocessor further having a program execution unit programmed, in an absence of use of the internal memory management unit for the translating of the virtual memory addresses into the physical memory addresses, to be responsive to receipt of a word of data that excludes a virtual memory address and comprises most-significant bits and least-significant bits by applying the most-significant bits as a comparand to the tags which indicate words of data that both correspond to the tags and exclude virtual memory addresses, to obtain an index indicative of which translation buffer entry's corresponding tag matches the comparand, and responsive to obtaining of the index by combining the index with the least-significant bits of the received word to form an address of the first memory.