Optical Content Addressable Memories for Managing an Index to a Very Large Data/Knowledge Base

In this paper we present an optical approach for managing an index to a very large data/knowledge base. Specifically, our research is focused on optical content addressable memories (OCAM) based on holographic principles. OCAMs offer advantages over conventional CAMs in managing a large index, because OCAMs offer a considerably larger storage~ capacity (1O8~1Ob0 bytes) and parallel output. With the large capacity of the OCAM, the potential exists for storing full index data to a very large data/knowledge base, which would otherwise be prohibitively costly in conventional electronic CAMs.