REDUCING CONTENT ADDRESSABLE MEMORY (CAM) POWER CONSUMPTION COUNTERS

• US 20100131703A1
• Filed: 01/29/2010
• Published: 05/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Inventors: HUANG, Kenneth, NARAYAN, Harsha, PATHAK, Ruturaj, PEDERSEN, Soren B.
• Granted Patent: US 7,984,235 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/108
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0811 with multilevel cache hierarchies
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 15/00 Digital stores in which information comprising one or more characteristic parts is written into the store and in which information is read-out by searching for one or more of these characteristic parts, i.e. associative or content-addressed stores
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A method may include counting the number of times each of a plurality of entries in a content addressable memory (CAM) matches one or more searches; grouping entries in the CAM into a first subset and a second subset based on the number of times each of the plurality of entries in the CAM matches one or more searches; and searching the first subset for a matching entry and, if no matching entry is found, searching the second subset for the matching entry.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

counting a number of times each of a plurality of entries in a content addressable memory (CAM) matches one or more searches;

grouping entries in the CAM into a first subset and a second subset based on the number of times each of the plurality of entries in the CAM matches the one or more searches; and

searching the first subset for a matching entry and, if the matching entry is not found, searching the second subset for the matching entry.

2-20. -20. (canceled)