Methods and apparatus are disclosed for, inter alia, managing idle time and
performing lookup operations to adapt to refresh requirements and/or operational
rates of the particular associative memory or other devices used to implement the
system. A system typically a controller coupled to a circuit including includes
multiple associative memories. The controller receives performance information
from at least one of the associative memories and generates idle time corresponding
to the performance information. This performance information may include an actual
refresh requirement for each of the associate memories or the worst-case requirement
of one of the associative memories, so that the controller can intermittently provide
the actual refresh cycles required, if any, by a particular implementation. This
performance information may indicate for some or all instructions the actual time
required by a particular instruction, so that the controller can operate based
on the actual time required, rather than inefficiently operating on a worst-case
time defined in a specification or data sheet.