Table indexing - CompArch

Table indexing - CompArch: "Table indexing
When I say that 'a table is indexed by a value V', I do not mean that all of the bits of V are used to form an address. Although that could be done, for something like a 64 bit address it could be a very large address.
Rather, I mean that the value V is used to determine what entry in the table is to be used. Some bits of V may be used as a number, to index the table. I call that RAM indexing. It may also use a hash of V.
Some or all of the bits of V may be matched against addresses already in the table. This is called CAM addressing.
RAM indexing and CAM indexing may be combined. E.g. RAM indexing may determine a set containing N tags, which are compared against the other bits of V to determine which entry within the set (often called which way of the set) should match.
For that matter, I also call it CAM indexing if bits of V are used to determine 1 of N bits, and that 1 of N code is compared to multiple entries in a table. See Decoded CAM versus Encoded CAM.
Thus, the term 'indexing' is general, not limited to the specific form of RAM indexing"