How do the MAC address table and TCAM differ in purpose and storage?

The correct answer states that the MAC address table is in CAM and ACL/QoS information is in TCAM. This is accurate because Content Addressable Memory (CAM) is optimized for exact match lookups, which is ideal for storing and quickly retrieving MAC addresses for Layer 2 forwarding. Ternary Content Addressable Memory (TCAM), on the other hand, can store three states (0, 1, and X for "don't care"), making it suitable for complex lookups involving wildcards and ranges, which are essential for Access Control Lists (ACLs), Quality of Service (QoS) policies, and routing table lookups. Incorrect options: TCAM is used to make L2 forwarding decisions. CAM is used to build routing tables: This is incorrect. CAM is for L2 forwarding (MAC addresses), and TCAM is for L3 forwarding (routing tables, ACLs, QoS). Router prefix lookups happen in CAM. MAC address table lookups happen in TCAM: This reverses the roles. Router prefix lookups (which involve wildcards) happen in TCAM, and MAC address lookups (exact matches) happen in CAM. The MAC address table supports partial matches. TCAM requires an exact match: This is incorrect. TCAM supports partial matches (due to its ternary nature), while CAM (and thus the MAC address table) primarily requires exact matches.