Content addressable memory device with advanced precharge timing
AssigneeFujitsu Limited
InventorMiki Yanagawa
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A content addressable memory device includes a match line having a potential thereof changed according to whether data of a memory cell matches a search key of a search bus, a precharge circuit which precharges the match line, a sample-&-hold circuit which samples and holds the potential of the match line, and a detection circuit which detects the potential held by the sample-&-hold circuit.
Claims7
A content addressable memory device, comprising:
- a match line having a potential thereof changed according to whether data of a memory cell matches a search key of a search bus;
- a precharge circuit which precharges said match line;
- a sample-&-hold circuit which samples and holds the potential of said match line;
- and
- a detection circuit which detects the potential held by said sample-&-hold circuit.
A method of precharging in a content addressable memory device, comprising the steps of:
- sampling and holding a potential of a match line that changes according to whether data of a memory cell matches a search key of a search bus;
- detecting the sampled and held potential;
- and
- precharging the match line to a predetermined potential concurrently with the detecting of the sampled and held potential.
A method of precharging in a content addressable memory device, wherein said step of detecting the sampled and held potential includes:
- sampling and holding a reference potential;
- and
- comparing the sampled and held reference potential with the sampled and held potential of the match line.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.