Abstract: A method and apparatus for the implementation of high-speed and memory efficient rule matching in a computer system, the rule matching being performed on an m-dimensional universe with each dimension bound by a given lower and upper coordinate value, and a set of rules that apply to an undetermined number of coordinates in that universe. More specifically, a high-speed computer based packet classification system, without the need for dedicated hardware, uses an innovative set intersection memory configuration to provide efficient matching of packets flowing through a network system to a specific process flow based on a packet tuple. The system also provides classification of packets as they flow through a network system. More particularly, this system provides the correlation of these flowing packets with previously received packets, along with identifying the packets so that they are handled efficiently.