Patent ID: 8156505

Claim:
A device for converting a message from a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) format to an application specific format comprising: circuitry for receiving the message in the SOAP format and for providing the message in the application specific format; circuitry for determining whether the message is in the SOAP format or the application specific format; circuitry for performing reduction operations when converting the message from the SOAP format into the application specific format, comprising: breaking up the message in the SOAP format into elements; discarding those elements that are not required to generate the application specific format; and retaining those elements that are required to generate the application specific format; and circuitry for converting the message from the SOAP format into the application specific format using, at least in part, the retained elements required to generate the application specific format; wherein the device is a custom integrated circuit SOAP processing device (SPD) comprising the circuitry for receiving, the circuitry for determining, the circuitry for performing, and the circuitry for converting, wherein the custom integrated circuit SPD is connected internally to a computer system, and wherein the custom integrated circuit SPD further comprises: circuitry for determining whether the message is in an unsupported SOAP format that is not supported by the custom integrated circuit SPD; and when the message is in the unsupported SOAP format that is not supported by the custom integrated circuit SPD, circuitry for sending the message to software running on the computer system for converting the message from the SOAP format into the application specific format; wherein the custom integrated circuit SPD is configured to accelerate SOAP processing operations, including the receiving the message, the determining SOAP format or application specific format, the performing reduction operations, and the converting the message; and wherein the custom integrated circuit SPD comprises local buffers and registers.