US Patent 10135739 Network-based computational accelerator

A data processing device includes a first packet communication interface for communication with at least one host processor via a network interface controller (NIC) and a second packet communication interface for communication with a packet data network. A memory holds a flow state table containing context information with respect to multiple packet flows conveyed between the host processor and the network via the first and second interfaces packet communication interfaces. Acceleration logic, coupled between the first and second packet communication interfaces, performs computational operations on payloads of packets in the multiple packet flows using the context information in the flow state table.