Patent ID: 7685254

Claim:
A runtime adaptable search processor for operating on information content and having a plurality of hardware configurations, said runtime adaptable search processor comprising: a. a control processor and scheduler structured to control and schedule the information content for processing and for performing an analysis of the information content; b. an adaptation controller structured to configure said hardware configurations of the runtime adaptable search processor configurations at runtime based on the performed analysis of the information content; c. at least one configuration memory for storing at least said plurality of hardware configurations; d. at least one runtime adaptable non-deterministic finite state automaton (NFA) search engine comprising logic gates for performing search on said information content, said NFA search engine comprising at least one NFA; e. at least one runtime adaptable deterministic finite state automaton (DFA) search engine comprising logic gates for performing search on said information content, said DFA search engine comprising at least one DFA; f. at least one state logic block (SLB) for performing state logic operations for a state; and g. at least one application state memory for storing application state information, said at least one application state memory comprising: at least one application state context that represents the context information to be programmed in said NFA search engine when the at least one application state context is selected to be configured in said NFA search engine, wherein the application state context comprises NFA parameters which are applicable to all SLBs of said at least one SLB, and at least one SLB parameter set which is applicable to one SLB of said at least one SLB.