Patent ID: 8856435

Claim:
A method comprising: using a storage device for storing indices of free entries for a Content Addressable Memory (CAM); populating said storage device with indices of free entries for said CAM; determining whether a lookup operation for said CAM resulted in a miss, wherein when said lookup operation results in a miss, utilizing a first entry in said storage device to write data subject of said lookup operation into said CAM and removing said first entry from said storage device, and when said lookup operation results in a hit then refraining from using said indices of free entries for said CAM; precalculating a next available one of said indices of free entries in a same cycle as said determining whether a lookup operation for said CAM resulted in a miss; and using a next available one of said indices of free entries in response to a next lookup operation for said CAM that results in a miss, wherein said free entries stored in said storage device are particular free memory locations within said CAM such that data is written into said CAM at said particular free memory locations.