Editing Content-addressable memory (section)

==Hardware associative array==
Unlike standard computer memory, [[random-access memory]] (RAM), in which the user supplies a memory address and the RAM returns the data word stored at that address, a CAM is designed such that the user supplies a data word and the CAM searches its entire memory to see if that data word is stored anywhere in it.  If the data word is found, the CAM returns a list of one or more storage addresses where the word was found. Thus, a CAM is the hardware embodiment of what in software terms would be called an [[associative array]].

A similar concept can be found in the ''data word recognition unit'', as proposed by [[Dudley Allen Buck]] in 1955.<ref>[http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=AD408276&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf TRW Computer Division] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110805004452/http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=AD408276&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf |date=August 5, 2011 }}, 1963, p.&nbsp;17.</ref>