抄録
This letter presents a race-free mixed serial-parallel comparison (RFMSPC) scheme which uses both serial and parallel CAMs in a match line. A self-reset search line scheme for the serial CAM is proposed to avoid the timing race problem and additional timing penalties. Various 32 entry CAMs are designed using 90nm 1.2V CMOS process to verify the proposed RFMSPC scheme. It shows that the RFMSPC saves power consumption by 40%, 53% and 63% at the cost of a 4%, 6% and 16% increase in search time according to 1, 2, and 4 serial CAM bits in a match line.
