JPS61177700A - Composite association memory - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible promptly and accurately to discriminate the establishment of plural conditions by providing a register storing the presence or absence of the condition establishment to a cell of a portion storing a conditional word equipped with a circuit for discriminating the coincidence or non- coincidence with the retrieval key. CONSTITUTION:The retrieval key information from a retrieval key buffer 6 is compared with the contents of a conditional word register 8 in a cell 7 at a coincidence circuit where coincidence is discriminated. The coincidence and non-coincidence are written as 1 or 0 in a condition establishment register 9 and the contents of the register 9 of each cell 7 are processed by an AND circuit 10. The output of the circuit 10 goes H only when plural conditions are established to read the association data. By this, the establishment of plural conditions are promptly and accurately discriminated to provide for high speed operation of the composite associative memory.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to a device that speeds up the determination of whether a condition is satisfied and the reading of the result for a target where a certain result is derived when a plurality of conditions are satisfied. In particular, the present invention relates to a complex associative memory suitable for complex searches, rule-based control, and binary reasoning.

[Background of the invention]

Conventional associative memory outputs data with matching condition words for one search key, and is useful for problems where it is necessary to identify whether multiple condition words hold true for multiple search keys. However, it was functionally inadequate.

[Purpose of the invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a complex associative memory that can identify the fulfillment of a plurality of condition words for a plurality of search keys and read out result data for which all conditions are satisfied at high speed.

[Summary of the invention]

The part that stores one condition word is called a cell, and this cell is usually equipped with a circuit that identifies whether it matches or does not match a search key. In the present invention, a register is further provided for each cell to store whether or not a condition is satisfied, and from the output of this register, it is possible to determine whether all condition words of one result data match any of the search keys input so far. The feature is that it determines whether a compound condition is met.

[Embodiments of the invention]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3.

@1 In the example shown in Figure 1, when one condition C operation f Q29 as is satisfied, the result R1 is read out. Also, the result R.

In order to read out, the condition axrc< must be satisfied. FIG. 2 shows an example in which a complex content addressable memory is configured for this example. The condition word storage unit 1 is composed of a large number of cells, and the result data storage unit 2 is an ordinary RAM.
, a response register 3, a multiple response decomposer 4, an encoder 5, and a search key buffer 6. One self constituting the condition word storage section 1 includes a condition word register 8 and a condition establishment register 9.

The search keys stored in the search key buffer 6 are sequentially input to the condition word storage section 1. It is assumed that the search key is broadcast to all cells, and in cells where the key matches the condition word, a flag "it 1" is set in the condition fulfillment register 9. For example, when C3 is input as a key, the flag "it 1" is set in the condition fulfillment register 9. The contents of register 9 become "1" because the contents match the contents of Cell condition fulfillment register 9
The initial value of is "0". The output of the 1-condition fulfillment register 9 is ANDed for each set of conditions corresponding to one result, and "1" is set as the response register when all the conditions of the set are satisfied. 3 is input.

Since a plurality of "1"s are generally input to the response register 3 at the same time, multiple inputs are serialized by multiple response decomposition@4. The output of the multi-response decomposer 4 is converted into an address signal by an encoder 5 and then input to the RAM 2. The RAM 2 outputs result data corresponding to the satisfied condition part.

The internal structure of the self is shown in FIG. 3. The self is composed of a condition word register 82, a condition establishment register 9, and a matching circuit 11. A search key is input via input line 12. When this key matches the contents of register 8, a clock signal is input to register 9, and the contents of register 9 are rewritten according to the value of input line 13. The input line 13 is loaded with a signal value of "1" when one condition is newly established, and a signal value of '0' when the previously established condition is cancelled.

Canceling a condition is used when a previously input search key no longer holds true during a compound search (for example, when used for control, when external conditions change, etc.). Although not shown in FIG. 1, it is assumed that the registers 8 and 9 of all cells can be reset at once if necessary.

Response register 3. Multi-response decomposer4. The encoder 5 may be a known encoder (for example, "Oshu: Associative memory and its applications, bit vol, is, Na4J").
This is because it is possible to read out associative data based on multiple search keys using only hardware, which was difficult with DDRASSABLA Mamoty).

This has the effect of speeding up the determination of whether a complex condition is met and the reading of corresponding results when the condition is met.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a condition-result table, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of a complex associative memory, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the internal configuration of a cell. 1... Condition word storage unit, 2... Result data record fiRA
M.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In an associative memory that reads necessary data based on a match or mismatch between a search key and stored content, there is a register that stores information on matches or mismatches for multiple condition words that are comparison targets of a search key for one read data; A complex associative memory comprising a circuit for determining whether all condition words serving as a condition part match any of the search keys input so far.