Patent ID: 7720854

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: logic to determine whether to retrieve a second entry from a packed table or an unpacked table based in part on an indicator in a first entry, wherein: the first entry comprises a match pointer, a packed table indicator, and vector pointer, the indicator includes the packed table indicator, the packed table indicator indicates whether the vector pointer points to an unpacked table or a trie vector block, the trie vector block includes an occupancy vector and packed trie pointer, and the packed trie pointer identifies a location of a packed table associated with the second entry; logic to selectively retrieve the second entry from a packed table in response to the indicator indicating storage of the second entry in a packed table, wherein the logic to retrieve is to: determine whether a location associated with the second entry includes a valid entry, selectively determine a location in the packed table associated with the second entry in response to the determination that the location associated with the second entry includes a valid entry, and retrieve the second entry from the determined location in the packed table; and logic to selectively retrieve the second entry from an unpacked table in response to the indicator indicating storage of the second entry in an unpacked table.