Cascading content-addressable memories

The various methods of connecting multiple content-addressable memory (CAM) devices to form a memory system of larger dimensions are surveyed. They include daisy-chaining CAMs to increase the number of elements and possibly using carry-lookahead logic to increase the cascade. To increase the data size, one can replicate the labels in distinct CAMs, use the data storage available in a primary CAM to index a secondary CAM/RAM (read-only memory), or reduce redundancy in labels. To increase the label size, one can use an element cascade with or without a shift register, a master-slave cascade, or a trie cascade. One of the methods examined for increasing the label size is a new trie cascade approach.<>