content addressable memory
associative memory

   (CAM, or "associative memory") A kind of storage device which
   includes comparison logic with each bit of storage.  A data
   value is broadcast to all words of storage and compared with
   the values there.  Words which match are flagged in some way.
   Subsequent operations can then work on flagged words, e.g. read
   them out one at a time or write to certain bit positions in
   all of them.  A CAM can thus operate as a data parallel
   (SIMD) processor.

   CAMs are often used in caches and memory management units.

   (1995-02-16)