Patent ID: 8886879

Claim:
A ternary content addressable memory (TCAM) system, comprising: a TCAM matching array; a TCAM action array that specifies actions that are taken upon a match in the TCAM array, the TCAM action array including entries having source IP, destination IP, protocol, source port, destination port, and action fields; and a TCAM driver that provides a programmable interface to the TCAM matching array and the TCAM action array, wherein program instructions programmed to the TCAM driver are stored in a memory and executed by a processing resource of the TCAM driver to: add a divert object which encompasses actions associated with TCAM action array entries, wherein the divert object is a data structure referencing a particular TCAM action field to change within multiple TCAM action array entries; and apply the divert object to change TCAM action fields associated with multiple TCAM action array entries, wherein changing TCAM action fields changes all TCAM action array entries associated with the divert object together without reordering the entries in the TCAM matching array, and without changing any other field in a given TCAM entry, while hardware is simultaneously using the entries.