Patent ID: 7631107

Claim:
A system for providing protocol processing capability comprising: a runtime adaptable protocol processor providing adaptable hardware acceleration based on processing network packets presented to said runtime adaptable protocol processor by a network, said network comprising one or more networked systems of one or more types, at least one of said one or more networked systems comprising said runtime adaptable protocol processor, said runtime adaptable protocol processor comprising a programmable content search and rule processing engine configured to search content of the network packets by applying a set of search rules or take actions or matched rules or a combination thereof, and said runtime adaptable protocol processor further comprising: a configuration controller, when said configuration controller is configured to dynamically map hardware functions to a plurality of hardware elements that are coupled to each other in a first configuration at a first time based on a protocol of a first one of the network packets, wherein one or more of the plurality of hardware elements are coupled to each other in a second configuration at a second time based on a protocol of a second one of the network packets, the second configuration being different from the first configuration.