Patent ID: 8849841

Claim:
A memory circuit for an Aho-Corasick type character recognition automaton in which character strings are recognized in an incoming data stream by implementation of successive transitions in a node tree in which each node corresponds to a recognized sequence of a character string and in which at least part of the nodes are related to a consecutive node by a valid transition, from an initial state to terminal states each corresponding to a recognized character string, the memory circuit comprising: a plurality of first sets of consecutive memory addresses defining respective strings of consecutive nodes accessible sequentially during successive transitions to a terminal state for the Aho-Corasick type character recognition automaton; a plurality of second sets of memory addresses defining multiple nodes each pointing to a plurality of states for the Aho-Corasick type character recognition automaton, and with at least one of the multiple nodes pointing to at least three states; and with the nodes of each string of consecutive nodes and the multiple nodes being addressable based upon the address of a base node and a relative shift with respect to the address of the base node, each node in the string of consecutive nodes being coded as a frame of bytes of variable length, with each frame comprising fields that determine transition relating to the node, and a plurality of flags describing content of the bytes used for destination of the transition, to describe a state associated with the node, and a type of transition; with each node of each multiple node being coded as a frame of coding bits having characteristics relating to a transition associated therewith, with each coding frame comprising bits for coding parameters for calculating a valid transition function, and bits for coding a parameter for verification of the transition.