ISRO2011-42

Question

The search concept used in associative memory is

• A. Parallel search
• B. Sequential search
• C. Binary search
• D. Selection search

Answer 1

Search in associative memory is parallel. For k-way associativity we can have k comparators which compares the tag bits of 'k' blocks in parallel. We can't increase 'k' beyond a limit due to hardware limitation.

Comments

R u sure?

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yes.

Answer 2

In any sort of associative memory — be it fully associative or x-way associative, we use something called "comparators" to search for the data we require.

The comparators compare the related tags in parallel, and it employs an OR gate because even if one tag matches, we need to know.

In fully associative memory, we have a tag for each possible location (all the cache lines) of the required data. Hence, we have n tags, and need n comparators — all of which compare parallelly.

In x-way set associative memory, the data can be in any of the x lines of a known set. For which we need x comparators which again, compare parallelly.

 

Option A

Answer 3

A type of computer memory from which items may be retrieved by matching some part of their content, rather than by specifying their address (hence also called associative storage or Content-addressable memory (CAM)
Associative memory makes a parallel search with the stored patterns as data files.