Abstract: String matching a first string to a string stored in a string dictionary is performed by k-way hashing the first string and locating corresponding k hash locations in a first memory. When any of the k hash locations has a zero Bloom bit, the first string is deemed to not match any of the strings in the string dictionary. Otherwise, a sub-set of the k hash locations identified as those k hash locations having non-zero Bloom bits and a unique bit set to 1 each include a pointer that points to a string in the string dictionary that is fetched and compared to the first string wherein the fetches from the string dictionary are interleaved over the addresses from the first memory. A match signal is issued when the first string matches at least one of the strings stored in the dictionary.

Abstract: An efficient finite state machine implementation of a string matching that relies upon a Content Addressable Memory (CAM) or a CAM-equivalent collision-free hash-based lookup architecture with zero false positives used as a method for implementing large FSMs in hardware using a collision-free hash-based look up scheme with low average case bandwidth and power requirements that overcomes prior art limitations by providing the ability to match an anchored or unanchored input stream against a large dictionary of long and arbitrary length strings at line speed. It should be noted that in the context of the described embodiments, a string could take many forms, such as a set of characters, bits, numbers or any combination thereof.