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:
Feb. 03, 2004
Filed:
Sep. 28, 2001
Calvin C. Wong, Milpitas, CA (US);
Jonathan M. Parlan, Los Altos, CA (US);
Robert L. Hoffman, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A method of managing free entries in a CAM using virtual page pre-fetch is defined. The memory locations in a CAM are partitioned into multiple virtual pages (VP). The allocation of memory location to VPs is independent of the physical address of the location. The address of an empty location (free entry) from each VP is pre-fetched and is maintained in a free entry list. Consecutive write operations are scheduled in different VPs to avoid a back-to-back write in the same VP which eliminates resource contention. When data is retrieved from a location in the CAM, that location becomes available for next write. Because the allocation of a location to VPs is independent of the physical address of the location, when the location becomes available, a new VP assignment is made for that location.