Patent ID: 7801877

Claim:
An integrated circuit search engine device, comprising: a plurality of serially connected stages, a respective one of which is configured to store therein a respective level of search keys in a multilevel tree of search keys, the plurality of serially connected stages including a first level stage that is responsive to an input search key and a last level stage that is configured to identify a best match key for the input search key; a handle memory including a plurality of handle memory locations, a respective one of which is configured to store a search result handle; and a handle memory access manager that is configured to search the handle memory to retrieve a search result handle that corresponds to a best match key in response to identification of the best match key by the plurality of serially connected stages; refrain from modifying the handle memory in response to modify instructions from the plurality of serially connected stages during active periods of the handle memory when the handle memory is being searched to retrieve a search result handle that corresponds to a best match key in response to identification of the best match key by the plurality of serially connected stages; and modify the handle memory in response to the modify instructions from the plurality of serially connected stages during idle periods of the handle memory when the handle memory is not being searched to retrieve a search result handle that corresponds to a best match key in response to identification of the best match key by the plurality of serially connected stages.