Memristor MOS Content Addressable Memory (MCAM): Hybrid Architecture for Future High Performance Search Engines

Abstract

Large-capacity Content Addressable Memory (CAM) is a key element in a wide variety of applications. The inevitable complexities of scaling MOS transistors introduce a major challenge in the realization of such systems. Convergence of disparate technologies, which are compatible with CMOS processing, may allow extension of Moore's Law for a few more years. This paper provides a new approach towards the design and modeling of Memristor (Memory resistor) based Content Addressable Memory (MCAM) using a combination of memristor MOS devices to form the core of a memory/compare logic cell that forms the building block of the CAM architecture. The non-volatile characteristic and the nanoscale geometry together with compatibility of the memristor with CMOS processing technology increases the packing density, provides for new approaches towards power management through disabling CAM blocks without loss of stored data, reduces power dissipation, and has scope for speed improvement as the technology matures.

A family of memristor‐based reactance‐less oscillators

“…The minimum and the maximum frequencies of the system can be calculated by substituting (11a) and (11b) in (15). The derived frequency equations are general and hold for any type of proposed MRLOs introduced in the next sections.…”

“…Since then, memristors have received intensive attention from researchers in many different fields. Due to its unique characteristics, the memristor is expected to play an important role in many applications [8,9] including chaotic circuits [10,11], non-volatile memory [12][13][14][15], pattern recognition [16,17], neural networks [18], cryptography [19], reconfigurable logic [20], and circuit modeling [21]. In addition, memristors can be used to build programmable analog circuits and novel circuit architectures [22][23][24].…”

Memristor-based memory: The sneak paths problem and solutions

“…Since the first reported use of the memristor, it received a significant of attention in the research community. In addition to be used as a memory element [2,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26], the memristor has found many applications in oscillators [27][28][29][30], logic and arithmetic circuits [31,32], programmable analog circuits [33,34], and in modeling and emulation of natural phenomena [35,36].…”

Investigations of the staircase memristor model and applications of memristor-based local connections

“…One of HP laboratories [2] announced the development of the memristor crossbar in computer memory and its ability of operating logic computation, which leads researchers to pursuing more potential applications of memristors. Recently, a memristor based CAM cell [7,14] was proposed to improve the density and power consumption of CAM. Beyond CAM, the memristor is a potential element to mimic the synapses in neural networks with the benefits of nano-scale structure and non-volatility [19,20,29].…”