Editing Content-addressable memory (section)

{{Short description|Type of computer memory}}

[[File:Content-addressable-memory.png|thumb|Content addressable memory]]
{{Memory types}}

'''Content-addressable memory''' ('''CAM''') is a special type of [[computer memory]] used in certain very-high-speed searching applications. It is also known as '''associative memory''' or '''associative storage''' and compares input search data against a table of stored data, and returns the address of matching data.<ref>{{Cite web|title=K. Pagiamtzis* and A. Sheikholeslami, Content-addressable memory (CAM) circuits and architectures: A tutorial and survey, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, pp. 712-727, March 2006.|url=https://www.eecg.utoronto.ca/~ali/papers/jssc2006-03.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070315145626/http://www.eecg.utoronto.ca:80/~ali/papers/jssc2006-03.pdf |archive-date=2007-03-15 }}</ref> 

CAM is frequently used in [[networking device]]s where it speeds up [[forwarding information base]] and [[routing table]] operations. This kind of associative memory is also used in cache memory. In associative cache memory, both address and content is stored side by side. When the address matches, the corresponding content is fetched from cache memory.