Looking for Content Adressable Memory

Nov 13, 2009 4 Replies
B

Hi,



I'm trying to find a CAM (also known as a Network Search Engine) but the manufacturers I located a few years ago (e.g. IDT, Cypress) have recently sold their product lines to Netlogic Microsystems.



I'm finding Netlogic a little difficult to deal with, and I was hoping someone here could suggest other manufacturers of these parts.



Rough specs:



About 50 million 112 bit ternary matches per second. (This would seem to rule out parts from Music Semiconductors.) The size requirement is quite modest; 4k entries would be ok.



I guess a binary CAM would also work if it had some sort of masking capability.



I am flexible regarding the interface.



Thanks, Bruce


Vote
Twitter Facebook LinkedIn
B

Thanks John. I hadn't considered that, but now that I do, I think it could be practical. The FPGA would have the disadvantage of much higher cost and power consumption, but the design might be able to bear that.

Cheers, Bruce.

Vote
Twitter Facebook LinkedIn
C

Assume that this is for mac address lookup ?. If so, 3com had an in house cam device for mac address based access control on some of their hardware. This was early 90's timeframe. Don't remember all the details (I was there doing fddi s/ware) and not sure if they would want to sell, but it wouldn't do any harm to make enquiries. Depending on who you are, they may sell under nda etc.

Doesn't look easy. 4 k x 112 bits ~= 64 K ram, then you have all the parallel comparators + logic...

Regards,

Chris

Vote
Twitter Facebook LinkedIn
K

I think you'll find that CAMs tend to be pretty high power devices. An FPGA likely won't be any worse.

Vote
Twitter Facebook LinkedIn

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required