LAUSR

Ternary Content Addressable Memory (TCAM) is used in applications that require a low power dissipation and fast data retrieval. This paper presents a domain wall-based spintronic TCAM cell. The proposed design exploits the resistive behavior of this nonvolatile memory, reduces total power dissipation by reducing the voltage swing at the match line, and minimizes delay by employing a tiny sensing unit within each cell. Our experimental evaluation on 45 nm technology for a 256-bit word-size TCAM at an 1 V supply voltage and 50 mV sense margin show that the delay is less than 200 ps. The per-bit search energy is approximately 3 fJ. Experimental evaluation on benchmark applications on the AMD Southern Islands GPU reveal that the GPU always dissipates less power when enhanced with the proposed TCAM design. Furthermore, the proposed method consumes at least 30% less energy when compared to state-of-the-art TCAM designs.