Tag matching mechanism and method and computing system for using thereof

A Content Addressable Memory (CAM)-based interface comprising:

• a cyclic buffer comprising a plurality of segments arranged in a sequence representing age, wherein each segment comprises tag entries configured to store tagging patterns;
• an appendage buffer comprising tag entries configured to store tagging patterns evicted from the cyclic buffer;
• a lookup engine configured to (i) receive an incoming data packet from an application element, and (ii) search the appendage buffer and cyclic buffer following a tag-matching search order starting from tag entries of the appendage buffer, followed by tag entries of the segments of the cyclic buffer in order of age from oldest to newest, to locate a first-encountered tag entry storing a tagging pattern matching at least one portion of the incoming data packet;
• and
• a memory access manager configured to (i) calculate a target address of a memory device based on an index of the located tag entry, and (ii) access the memory device at the target address to retrieve or write data corresponding to the incoming data packet.

A method of accessing Content Addressable Memory (CAM), the method comprising:

• maintaining a cyclic buffer comprising a plurality of segments arranged in a sequence representing age, wherein each segment comprises tag entries configured to store tagging patterns;
• maintaining an appendage buffer comprising tag entries configured to store tagging patterns evicted from the cyclic buffer;
• receiving an incoming data packet from an application element;
• employing a lookup engine to search the appendage buffer and cyclic buffer following a tag-matching search order starting from tag entries of the appendage buffer, followed by tag entries of the segments of the cyclic buffer in order of age from oldest to newest, to locate a first-encountered tag entry storing a tagging pattern matching at least one portion of the incoming data packet;
• calculating a target address of a content addressable memory device based on an index of the located tag entry;
• and
• accessing the content addressable memory device at the target address to retrieve or write data corresponding to the incoming data packet.