Content-addressable memory

cosmos 25th November 2016 at 11:16pm
Memory
  1. aka associative memory, although with slightly different connotations/meanings

A Content-addressable memory system compares input search data (tag) against a table of stored data, and returns the address of matching data (or in the case of associative memory, the matching data).

An information storage device is called an associa-tive memory, if it permits the recall of information on the basis of a partial knowledge of its content, but without knowing its storage location.

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Content-addressable_memory

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Associative_memory

Associative memory in the Brain

A lot of Memory processes in the brain function associatively: by being told partial information about something, we can usually recall the thing they are refering to.

This should not be taken to imply that address-oriented information stor-age has no place in the human memory. Often it is possible to recall a specific event by remembering all related memories in the order in which they oc-curred.

Hopfield associative memory

See Neural Networks: An Introduction [2 ed.] by Muller et al., chapter 3.