Patent ID: 7043600
Filing Date: 2006-05-09
Classification: G11C

Abstract:
1. A CAM system for generating an output on a bus in response to a key, the CAM system comprising: at least two clusters that each include M CAM devices, wherein each CAM device has a priority N within the cluster to which it belongs, where N ranges from 1 to M, and each CAM device includes: a controller configured to receive a cluster-match signal from the clusters and to generate a cluster-disable signal for the clusters, wherein the cluster-disable signal for a particular cluster is asserted when any cluster-match signal received by the controller from any cluster having higher priority than that particular cluster is asserted; wherein each CAM device further includes a connection configured to receive the cluster-disable signal for the cluster containing the CAM device and a connection configured to provide the cluster-match signal for that cluster; and wherein each cascade circuit is further configured to disable the CAM device from driving the output onto the bus when the cluster-disable signal is asserted.