Patent ID: 7349230

Claim:
An associative memory cell configured to selectively produce a matching result of two binary content-addressable memory (CAM) bits or of one ternary content-addressable memory (TCAM) bit, the associative memory cell comprising: two CAM bit cells configured to identify whether or not their associated programmed value matches a respective input value; match detection logic, coupled to said two CAM bit cells, configured to generate the matching result based on said matching of said two CAM bit cells; and selective circuitry, coupled to the two CAM bit cells, configured to selectively provide input search values as search values to said two CAM bit cells such that in a CAM bit mode of the selective circuitry, the two CAM bit cells provide two CAM bit results, and when in a TCAM bit mode, the two CAM bit cells provide a single TCAM bit result.