Patent ID: 7711807

Claim:
A network processor comprising: a scratch pad coupled to a plurality of programmable units; and a programmable control unit coupled to the scratch pad and the plurality of programmable units, wherein the control unit is to generate a first threshold value for a first type of exception data unit and a second threshold value for a second type of exception data unit, wherein the first threshold value and the second threshold value are determined based on respective weight factors of the first type and the second type of exception data units and a scratch pad threshold value, wherein the plurality of programmable processing units is to filter the first type of exception data units to store a first proportion of the first type of exception data units in the scratch pad based on the first threshold value and filter the second type of exception data units to store a second proportion of the second type of exception data units in the scratch pad based on the second threshold value, wherein the programmable control unit is to determine a scratch pad fullness value based on the second proportion, wherein the second proportion is greater than the first proportion and the second type of exception data units are of higher priority compared to the first type of exception data units, wherein the scratch pad is provisioned to selectively allow the first and the second type of exception data units from a regular processing path to a specialized processing path of the network processor.