uPD98421 (Address Search Engine)

How can the power consumption of the uPD98421 be minimized?

The power consumption of the uPD98421 is proportional to the search frequency.
Therefore, the power consumption will become proportionally lower as the search frequency or the operating frequency is reduced.
To lower the search frequency, input the NOP command for cycles during which search is not to be performed.

The operating current values in the normal mode listed in the DC characteristics in the Data Sheet are for when continuous search (at every rising edge of the clock) is performed using the 33 MHz clock.
In the FF mode, search is performed once every 2 clocks, so the power consumption in this case is the same as when performing search in the normal mode with half the operating frequency.

By the way, increasing the number of bits/entries to be masked has only a small influence on the power consumption.
The reason why is that the search results are not reflected to the masked bits, but these masked bits operate internally in the same way as unmasked bits.