A 5nm Fin-FET 2G-search/s 512-entry x 220-bit TCAM with Single Cycle Entry Update Capability for Data Center ASICs

This paper presents a 2G-search/s embedded Ternary Content Addressable Memory (TCAM) design in 5nm Fin-FET technology with the ability to update both SRAM words in a TCAM entry in a single clock cycle. This reduces TCAM update latency by 50% for data center Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) with only 1% area overhead and no search power penalty. We present a novel time multiplexed input bus interface on a single port TCAM cell array and new architecture to enable fast updates. Silicon measurement shows the highest reported search rate of 2G-search/s at a 3.48Mb/mm ² memory density including all global peripheral circuitry for a 512 entry, 220-bit wide, 110Kb TCAM.