Patent ID: 7469369

Claim:
A content-addressable-memory device comprising: a plurality of content-addressable-memory sub-arrays that simultaneously perform a parallel comparison between a plurality of data sequences arranged in a row direction of memory cells and a first search data sequence input from outside, and outputs a result of the comparison for each of the data sequences; a first input pin to which the first search data sequence is input; a second input pin to which a second search data sequence for selecting an object of search from among the content-addressable-memory sub-arrays is input; a plurality of memory units arranged corresponding to each of the content-addressable-memory sub-arrays; a plurality of comparing circuits arranged corresponding to each of the content-addressable-memory sub-arrays; and a plurality of activation control circuits arranged corresponding to each of the content-addressable-memory sub-arrays, wherein the comparing circuit compares a value stored in the memory units and indicating the content-addressable-memory sub-array with a value of the second search data sequence; and the activation control circuit determines whether to execute the parallel comparison operation in the corresponding content-addressable-memory sub-array based on a result of the comparing circuit.