High-throughput CAM based on a synchronous overlapped search scheme

A high-speed data-search mechanism, called a synchronous overlapped search mechanism (SOSM) that enables a next-word search after searching just a few bits of the current word by simple pre-computation in most cases, is introduced for a content-addressable memory (CAM). Since there are no delay elements in the proposed hardware based on the SOSM, the hardware is robust against timing variation, maintaining high-throughput computing under serious process variation. A 128×64-bit CAM is designed with considering 30% variations of threshold voltages under a 45 nm CMOS technology and operates at 4.2× faster throughput than that of a conventional CAM with 12.3% energy overhead.