US Patent 8638793 Enhanced parsing and classification in a packet processor

An apparatus includes a comparator engine having a comparison logic unit to compare at least a portion of a header of a data unit to a header pattern, where the header pattern corresponds to at least a portion of a header of a previously analyzed data unit, and a match indication generator to generate a match indication if the at least a portion of the header matches the header pattern; and a result generator to cause the data unit to be processed based on the previously analyzed data unit if the match indication is generated.