公开(公告)号：US20240029792A1

公开(公告)日：2024-01-25

申请号：US17872882

申请日：2022-07-25

Applicant: HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT LP

Inventor： TOBIAS FREDERIC ZIEGLER ,  RON M. ROTH ,  GIACOMO PEDRETTI ,  LUCA BUONANNO ,  PEDRO HENRIQUE ROCHA BRUEL ,  CATHERINE GRAVES

IPC: G11C15/04 ,  G11C16/12 ,  G11C16/10 ,  H03K19/017

CPC classification number: G11C15/04 ,  G11C16/12 ,  G11C16/102 ,  H03K19/01742

Abstract: Examples increase precision for aCAMs by converting an input signal (x) received by a circuit into a first analog voltage signal (V(xMSB)) representing the most significant bits of the input signal (x) and a second analog voltage signal (V(xLSB)) representing the least significant bits of the input signal (x). By dividing the input signal (x) bit-wise into the first analog voltage signal (V(xMSB)) and the second analog voltage signal (V(xLSB)), the circuit can utilize aCAM sub-circuits implementing a combination of Boolean operations to search the input signal (x) against 22*M programmable levels, where “M” represents the number of programmable bits for each aCAM sub-circuit. Thus, using similar circuit hardware, example circuits square the number of programmable levels of conventional aCAMs (which generally only have 2M programmable levels). Accordingly, examples provide new aCAMs that can carry out more complex computations than conventional aCAMs of comparable cost, size, and power consumption.