Patent ID: 7978700

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a header analyzer unit configured to generate attribute information regarding headers of a data unit, the generated header attribute information for use in parsing the data unit, wherein the header analyzer unit comprises: a programmable memory unit including a content addressable memory (CAM) having an input to receive a first portion of the data unit and a second portion of the data unit; and a memory separate from the CAM and coupled to an output of the CAM, wherein the memory separate from the CAM is to programmably store header attribute information regarding a plurality of different types of headers for data units having different formats; wherein the CAM stores indications of locations within the memory separate from the CAM; the apparatus further comprising: an interface coupled to the input of the CAM, wherein the interface is controllable to couple selected portions of the data unit to the input of the CAM; a controller coupled to the output of the CAM and an input of the memory separate from the CAM, wherein the controller is configured to control the interface to couple the first portion of the data unit to the input of the CAM; use an output of the CAM corresponding to the first portion of the data unit to retrieve from the memory separate from the CAM an indication of a second portion of the data unit; control the interface to couple the second portion of the data unit to the input of the CAM; and use an output of the CAM corresponding to the second portion of the data unit to retrieve from the memory separate from the CAM header attribute information.