VARIABLE WIDTH CONTENT ADDRESSABLE MEMORY DEVICE FOR SEARCHING VARIABLE WIDTH DATA

Variable width Content Addressable Memory (CAM) devices for searching data of variable widths, are disclosed. The CAM devices include, a plurality of CAM blocks and a plurality of dual-mode first encoders. The plurality of CAM blocks is configured to store a plurality of data of variable widths with each data having one or more data portions of one or more predetermined widths. Each CAM block is configured to store a predetermined width portion of the data such that each data is stored in one or more CAM blocks. The CAM blocks receive a search data having a specified number of search data portions with each search data portion having one or more predetermined widths. Each CAM block receives a search data portion of the search data for searching the search data in the CAM blocks. The plurality of dual mode first encoders is configured for concatenating the specified number of the CAM blocks to generate one or more search results. A set of the dual mode first encoders concatenates the specified number of CAM blocks to match the width of the search data. The remaining dual mode first encoders generate one or more search results when the concatenated CAM blocks contain data that matches the search data.