| 摘要 |
<p>A semiconductor integrated circuit is a CAM memory which comprises at least one memory cell including a first storage unit for defining the electrical connection and otherwise the non-connection between a first data line and a match line and a second storage unit for defining the electrical non-connection and otherwise the connection between a second data line and the match line, and a control word line for controlling said first and second storage units in the memory cell, the match line corresponding to at least one of the control word lines, the control word line being used to effect the connection and otherwise non-connection between each of said first and second data lines and the match line in accordance with the definition of connections of said first and second storage units. Moreover, the storage unit can be composed of a coupler or a nonvolatile memory element such as a MONOS-type nonvolatile memory element, PROM, EPROM, EEPROM, UVEPROM and a like, and the memory cell further may include at least one selective transistor. The CAM memory comprises at least one of potential detecting means for detecting an electric potential of the match line, holding means for holding the result of detection in response to each control word line and preventing means for preventing the through current between the memory cells in conformity with and in nonconformity with the retrieval data. Therefore, the semiconductor integrated circuit can construct a large scale integrated CAM which permits data to be read out and written flexibly and data to be retrieved from a large number of memory cells without electrical and mutual interference, simultaneously with the building-up of a high-speed, large capacity data base. <IMAGE></p> |
