US Patent 7426127 Full-rail, dual-supply global bitline accelerator CAM circuit

A content-addressable memory circuit includes a first local bit line coupled to a first memory location, a second local bit line coupled to a second memory location, a global bit line coupled to the first and second local bit lines and a global bit line accelerator coupled to the first and second local bit lines and the global bit line. The global bit line accelerator sets the second local bit line to a first logical value depending on a signal from the first local bit line. In this way, the global bit line accelerator accelerates the evaluation phase of operation of the second local bit line.