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:
Oct. 04, 2011
Filed:
Oct. 21, 2010
Bindiganavale S. Nataraj, Cupertino, CA (US);
Chetan Deshpande, San Jose, CA (US);
Vinay Iyengar, Cupertino, CA (US);
Sandeep Khanna, Los Altos, CA (US);
Bindiganavale S. Nataraj, Cupertino, CA (US);
Chetan Deshpande, San Jose, CA (US);
Vinay Iyengar, Cupertino, CA (US);
Sandeep Khanna, Los Altos, CA (US);
NetLogic Microsystems, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
Present embodiments describe a CAM device having a segmented CAM array. Each segment of the CAM array, or cell blocks, includes one or more rows of CAM cells. One or more of the cell blocks in the CAM array are selectively enabled during a search operation based on a detected matching condition of another cell block. By selectively enabling cell blocks during search operations only when needed, energy consumption is reduced. Selectively enabling a cell block includes selectively pre-charging match lines to the cell block, selectively enabling word lines to the cell block, and selectively enabling comparand line to the cell block. In accordance with certain embodiments, the CAM device is configurable to perform search operations in a pipelined manner. Accordingly, the CAM device is capable of performing multiple search operations simultaneously.