Patent ID: 7151778

Claim:
A Fibre Channel device for use in a Fibre Channel fabric for filtering data packets, the fabric coupling a plurality of internal devices, the Fibre Channel device comprising: a data packet register for storing portions of a data packet; a first memory storing filtering information relating to a first portion of a data packet; a first comparator coupled to said first memory and said data packet register comparing said information to the data packet and providing an output indicative thereof; a second memory storing filtering information relating to a second portion of the data packet; a second comparator coupled to said second memory and said data packet register comparing said information to the data packet and providing an output indicative thereof; a third memory coupled to said first comparator indicating group information based on said first comparator output; a fourth memory coupled to said second comparator indicating group information based on said second comparator output; and a comparison circuit coupled to said third and fourth memories to determine the presence of any overlap in said indicated group information and providing an output indicative thereof.