Patent ID: 8706666

Claim:
A data processing device for processing streams of content data, comprising: a streams manager for generating control messages defining one or more of a plurality of predetermined subscriber-specific content processing functions to be performed upon a received content data stream; content inspection logic configurable to perform pattern matching functions to detect, in a received content data stream, one or more predefined patterns each having a unique pattern index number, and to output match data comprising, for each matched pattern, a match index number comprising the respective pattern index number of the matched pattern; a programmable microprocessor unit for executing computer program instructions, coupled to an instruction store for storing a plurality of match handler routines each of which are executable by the programmable microprocessor unit to perform content processing of a received content data stream; a match information store for storing, for each of said plurality of predetermined subscriber-specific content processing functions, a set of cross-references between one or more of said pattern index numbers and one or more of said match handler routines to be executed upon detection of the respective pattern in a received content data stream, the programmable microprocessor unit being coupled to the content inspection logic to receive match data in respect of a received content data stream and to the streams manager to receive notification of a defined subscriber-specific content processing function to be performed on the received content data stream and, with reference to a respective set of cross-references stored in the match information store, to identify a match handler routine based on the pattern index number defined in the received match data and to execute said identified match handler routine to implement content processing thereby to perform the notified subscriber-specific content processing function in response to the received content data stream; and a content queue store, in which content of the received content data stream is queued in the content queue store during processing of the content and wherein the flow of content to an output is controlled in dependence on the outcome of the subscriber-specific content processing function and the flow of received content data is controlled in dependence on the outcome of the subscriber-specific content processing function.