The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 16, 2003
Filed:
Sep. 25, 2001
Integrated Device Technology, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
Content addressable memory (CAM) devices include CAM arrays that can identify a best match(es) from a plurality of matches when an operation to compare data applied to a CAM array against data entries within the CAM array is performed. This best match identification operation is preferably performed internal to the CAM array. The best match identification operation does not require operations to determine a highest priority match based on the relative physical locations of multiple matching entries that might be identified within the CAM array during a compare operation. The CAM device also does not require that the CAM array(s) therein be sectored into groups of entry locations (e.g., rows) having ordered priorities or that each CAM array within a multi-array CAM device be treated as a respective sector. Entries having identical priority may be entries having the same number of actively masked bits therein.