Patent ID: 7602629
Filing Date: 2009-10-13
Classification: G11C

Abstract:
1. A method for content addressable memory (CAM), comprising: writing entries, including a type field in each entry, to ternary CAM (TCAM) cells of a TCAM, thereby storing the entries including the type fields in the TCAM cells; marking certain entries as valid; pre-charging match lines associated with the entries when an entry is valid and based on a type selection and the type fields stored in the TCAM cells; dividing the TCAM into a number of different groups, each group having a number of entries and a type select input; generating a number of group enable bits for each group based on the number of entries in the group and based on examining the type field of each entry as entries are written into each group; generating the number of group enable bits for each different value to the type field; and storing the number of group enable bits for each different value to the type field in a separate memory.