Patent ID: 7941605

Claim:
A method, comprising: performing a lookup operation in an associative memory using a key including a lookup word portion and a discriminator to generate a lookup result including an address, said performance of the lookup operation including comparing the key against entries stored in the associative memory; retrieving a base address and a bitmap from a location, identified by the address, within a random access memory, with the bitmap including a plurality of bits; generating a particular address result based on the discriminator, the bitmap, and the base address, including: identifying a bit position in the bitmap indicated by the discriminator; in response to determining that the bit position indicated by the discriminator is set, generating a match indication; and calculating the particular address result by adding to the base address the number of set bits from position zero to said identified bit position; and processing one or more packets by a processing engine based on the particular address result and the match indication.