The GLUEchip: a custom VLSI chip for detector readout and associative memories circuits

An associative memory full-custom VLSI chip for pattern recognition has previously been designed and tested. It is the AMchip, and contains 128 patterns of 60 bits each. To expand the pattern capacity of an associative memory bank, the custom VLSI GLUEchip has been developed. The GLUEchip allows the interconnection of up to 16 AMchips or up to 16 GLUEchips; the resulting treelike structure works like a single AMchip with an output pipelined structure and a pattern capacity increased by a factor of 16 for each GLUEchip used.<>