Precharge-Free, Low-Power Content-Addressable Memory

Content-addressable memory (CAM) is the hardware for parallel lookup/search. The parallel search scheme promises a high-speed search operation but at the cost of high power consumption. Parallel NOR- and NAND-type matchline (ML) CAMs are suitable for high-search-speed and low-power-consumption applications, respectively. The NOR-type ML CAM requires high power, and therefore, the reduction of its power consumption is the subject of many reported designs. Here, we report and explore the short-circuit (SC) current during the precharge phase of the NOR-type ML. Also proposed here is a novel precharge-free CAM. The proposed CAM is free of the drawbacks of the charge sharing in the NAND and the SC current in the NOR-type CAM. Postlayout simulations performed with a 45-nm technology node revealed a significant reduction in the energy metric: 93% and 77% lesser than NOR- and NAND-type CAMs, respectively. The Monte Carlo simulation for 500 runs was performed to ensure the robustness of the proposed precharge-free CAM.