Content addressable memory having redundancy capabilities

摘要

According to one embodiment, a content addressable memory (CAM) (100) can include a number of ordinary rows (102-0 to 102-n) that provide ordinary match indications (Match0 to Matchn) as well as redundant rows (108-0 and 108-1) that can provide redundant match indications (RMatch0 and RMatch1). If an ordinary row (102-0 to 102-n) is defective, a redundancy multiplexer (114-0 to 114-n) can be switched to provide a redundant match indication (RMatch0 and RMatch1) as an input to a priority encoder (118) instead of the ordinary match indication from the defective ordinary row.