Abstract: Apparatus and methods to efficiently process packet data are disclosed. In one embodiment, a microcode engine designed to efficiently parse packet data may use instructions that are tailored to parse packet data fields of a data packet having nested protocols. The microcode engine design and the instruction set may enable highly efficient packet processing while preserving flexibility as to the packet protocols that can be processed. The implementation can be both specific to a packet processing task while allowing reprogramming to perform a different specific task simply by changing the instructions. The microcode engine may execute instructions in a single clock cycle or in a pipelined configuration to generate appropriately modified packet data. The microcode engine may operate in lock step with received packet data.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for analyzing a data stream device at a packet level. In one embodiment, design logic is embedded within a target data stream processing device such as a networking device or video device. The embedded design logic is configured to start and stop the target data stream processing device and to inject data into the target data stream processing device for evaluation. The embedded design may also be configured to detect a user selected data value in a packet within the target data stream processing device before the packet is transmitted through the device's physical layer or passed up the device's networking stack. In addition, or in another embodiment, at least a portion of the design logic, including the ability to detect the user selected value in the packet, may be located external to the data stream processing device.