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:
Jun. 08, 2004
Filed:
Aug. 10, 2000
Alex E. Henderson, Hillsborough, CA (US);
Walter E. Croft, San Mateo, CA (US);
Raymond M. Chu, Saratoga, CA (US);
Vishal Sarin, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A system and method for determining a best match from a plurality of matches received in response to a search input for an associative memory includes a priority field associated with each data item stored in the associative memory. The priority field corresponds to criteria that is used to order the priority of the data items in the associative memory. A match resolution circuit is coupled to receive match signals from an associative memory, such as a CAM, and the priority fields of the matching data items. The match resolution structure compares the priority fields of the matching data items to determine which data item has the highest priority. The match resolution structure indicates the data item with the highest priority in the priority field as the best match of the associative memory for the particular search input.