US Patent 7185172 CAM-based search engine devices having index translation capability

An integrated circuit chip includes a search engine including a content addressable memory (CAM) configured to produce CAM indices responsive to search instructions provided to the search engine. The search engine further includes an index translation circuit operatively coupled to the CAM and configured to provide translation of the CAM indices to another memory space, such as from an absolute index space associated with the CAM to a memory space associated with a database within the CAM or to a memory space of a device external to the chip, such as a command source or external SRAM.