Semiconductor device and method for writing/reading information

Abstract

[Problem] To achieve an increase in writing capacity, memory size reduction, and writing process speedup while maintaining low power consumption in a search process. [Solution] Disclosed is a semiconductor device that writes, into respective memory spaces of a plurality of divisional memories constituting a search memory mat, an entry address corresponding to key data to be written. In this semiconductor device, pieces of divisional data are assigned respectively to the divisional memories, and, by employing each divisional data as an address, an entry address corresponding to said divisionaldata is written sequentially into a memory space specified by a memory address of each said divisional memory (first writing process). In this first writing process, if another entry address is already written in an accessed memory space, no entry address is written into that memory space. If an entry address corresponding to one of the plurality of pieces of divisional data is successfully written into a memory space, the first writing process is ended.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to a semiconductor device, a method for writing and reading a registration address of the semiconductor device, and more specifically, the semiconductor device of the present invention relates to an associative memory that can reduce power consumption during data writing and searching (Content Addressable Memory content addressable memory, CAM) and so on. Background technique [0002] In recent years, it has become the era of cloud computing technology, and the high performance of network switches or routers and the reduction of power consumption have been regarded as urgent issues. Also, in terms of a search engine on the Internet, there is a strong demand for a technology that can reliably perform a search operation at a higher speed and with lower power consumption. In order to meet this demand, CAM has been used more and more in network switches or search engines in recent years. [0003] Here, when a general CAM per...

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Problems solved by technology

[0005] However, the data search device disclosed in the above-mentioned Patent Document 1 can reduce the power consumption during the search compared with the general memory, but in order to perform the search process, it is necessary to access the entire memory space in the block at one time.

Therefore, while the existing data search device is complex in circuit configuration, it also has the problem of large power consumption during search.

According to this situation, the technology of the above-mentioned patent document 1 does not propose a fundamental solution to the present problem

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