Patent ID: 7120630

Claim:
A computer system comprising: a computer readable medium containing a plurality of data structures, for finding a match for a variable length search key, said data structure including: a first pattern; a direct table stores a first address location for a search tree; a plurality of pattern search control blocks wherein pattern search control block represents a branch in the search tree; a plurality of leaves wherein each leaf is an address location for storing predefined information relative to said first pattern; and a search tree engine to correlate the first pattern with information stored in selected ones of the plurality of data structures and forward the predefined information found in a leaf included in the selected ones of the plurality of data structure if a match occurs between the first pattern and a second pattern stored in said leaf wherein a format for the direct table includes at least one of the search control block including a next pattern address points to a next pattern search control block, a leaf control block address points to one of the plurality of leaves, a next bit or bits to test and a direct leaf.