Patent ID: 7095742

Claim:
A packet processing unit, comprising: packet receiving means for outputting a packet received via a first transmission channel in the form of split cells of a fixed length, search key extracting means for extracting a predetermined search key from said cells output from said packet receiving means, a CAM for performing retrieval of a memory address based on said search key extracted by said search key extracting means and for outputting said memory address, associative data storing means for storing at least destination information and for outputting information stored at an input memory address, associative data reading means for calculating a particular memory address of said associative data storing means based on said memory address output from said CAM and for supplying the particular memory address to said associative data storing means, destination address means for updating a destination address of a particular cell of said cells based on particular information output from said associative data storing means that is stored at said particular memory address in said associative data storing means and for outputting said cells, and packet transmitting means for combining the cells output from said destination address means into an updated packet and for outputting said updated packet to a second transmission channel, wherein said packet receiving means, said search key extracting means, said CAM, said associative data reading means, said associative data storing means, said destination address means, and said packet transmitting means are configured to perform processing as stages of a pipeline.