The CAM as a System Part

Many systems and organizations exist in computer technology and data management in which the CAM is included as an auxiliary memory unit or an otherwise essential system part. This chapter reviews a few such examples: advanced memory architectures and control structures implementable by CAM circuits. The main emphasis is in pointing out the functional role of the CAM in the system, and its interaction with the other units. Some of the most important applications are mentioned in the proper context, and some related hardware principles can be found in Chap. 6. The particular applications discussed in this chapter are: 1) Virtual memory. 2) Dynamic memory allocation. 3) Content-addressable buffer. 4) Programmable logic.